Paragon
by Lord Kelvin
Summary: Adapts the user to its needs or annihilates her. Elinium Type 95.
1. Scarcity

_You are reading the first Youjo Senki: Saga of Tanya the Evil fanfic here on FFN. It is a multi-chapter story about Tanya Degurechaff, Adelaide von Schugel and the Elinium Type 95._

Hi!

I'm still getting over the fact FFN added the category hours after I made the request. Commendable efficiency!

The story is set during volume one, chapter two of the light novel. You can also refer to episode three of the anime or volume one, chapter two of the manga. You might spot slight differences in the naming scheme depending on your preferred medium. My goal is to flesh out the scenes that canon glossed over. Expect nuanced banter, character drama and explosions.

Disclaimer: Tanya Degurechaff, related characters and locales are copyright Carlo Zen.

* * *

 **Paragon**

* * *

 _Common Era 1923, South-West of the Imperial Capital Berlun, Elinium Factory_

Engineering Director Adelaide von Schugel was in a good mood, a really good mood. Compared to two days ago when he had to wipe the remains of hapless testing personnel from his ocular, he was almost ecstatic.

The crown jewel of his research, the Elinium Type 95 Operation Orb was the foundation upon which mankind would transcend the shackles of reality. All he needed to validate his research was a soldier capable of wielding the orb.

This was the obstacle set up for him by the Imperial Military Inspector General of Logistics Office. Professor Schugel baulked at their efforts to provide volunteers: careless, whiny, unfocused, dead. The volunteers' contribution was limited to giving Professor Schugel a reason to file a formal request to change the selection procedure of testing personnel.

In the military, one didn't get to pick one's subordinates, but exceptional circumstances warranted a solution more suited to the scientific background of the Elinium Factory. Its happenstance affiliation to the Imperial military during the ongoing war with the Federation in the North changed nothing in Professor Schugel's point of view. He accomplished a scientific breakthrough that the Inspector General agreed to bankroll on condition of yielding concrete results.

The orb _was_ the result. Professor Schugel found it inconceivable that the Imperial military, a meritocracy geared towards advancement of top talent, failed to provide the product of its due process, a soldier motivated enough to properly operate the orb. Their incompetence cast a shadow on Professor Schugel's own capability to meet the mark. An invention so state-of-the-art the other Great Powers would need decades to emulate was faulted for user error.

A bad artist blamed his tools and it was clear to Professor Schugel that the tool could not be faulted in this case. Neither the engineers from the Inspector General of Logistics Office nor the scholars from the Imperial Technology Research Laboratory Investigation Committee expressed doubts over the orb's theoretical background. And yet, recordings shown to the Inspector General painted a picture of the contrary…

"The mana flow feels wrong!"

"It's going out of control!"

Albeit unquestioned on principle, Professor Schugel's genius excelled at producing corpses and going over budget instead of delivering practical results to aid the Empire's war effort. Therefore, his expectation was that the higher-ups would stop bottlenecking his work in acknowledgement of the difficulties it was causing. It aggravated him that the testing personnel acquired via the military's standing procedures preferred blowing up the orb along with themselves and any observation staff stationed nearby. The Department of Personnel Affairs within the Imperial Army Bureau of Staff Officers, in Professor Schugel's view, was bound to agree to sweeping changes in order to produce a less embarrassing outcome.

To facilitate the change, Professor Schugel petitioned for carte blanche to inspect the personal dossiers of almost every Aerial Mage in service, from conscripted trainees to Officer Cadet School graduates. The Department of Personnel Affairs would have never approved such a proposal, given Professor Schugel's propensity to fast track military assets to the graveyard, had it not been for the age and experience ceiling he proposed.

He outright rejected the idea of seasoned veterans, the most adept users of operation orbs, participating in testing of the Type 95. Professor Schugel's reasoning was beyond reproach: Aerial Mages lost flexibility upon getting used to the functioning of current generation operation orbs, as demonstrated during prior testing.

At the same time, the further requirement for a mana pool capacity at least four times the standard for Aerial Mages guaranteed his acquisitions would be able to activate the orb and not melt on the spot.

Professor Schugel made provisions for deviations such as loss of consciousness and cardiac arrest, of course. The military had the means to put soldiers, who have incurred such accidents, back on their feet. It was the molten ones that they didn't have a cure for. And they were difficult to get off of one's uniform...

The Department of Personnel Affairs conceded to Professor Schugel's demands and, in their words, got him what he had requested. The number of dossiers brought to him was disappointing, putting it mildly.

"One?!"

Professor Schugel found the Department of Personnel Affairs' poor sense of humour an affront to the Empire's military goals as well as his research. He would have had the incompetent staffer responsible for the partial delivery of documents prosecuted if it weren't for the outcome of a follow-up telephone call. The one dossier he received was, in fact, the grand total. There was no mistake.

He rubbed his temples to relieve the frustration. Either the next generation of Aerial Mages consisted of weaklings or the higher-ups were running out of patience. Neither conclusion boded well. Having to work with a single operator until additional candidates were discovered put pressure on the testing schedule. Professor Schugel was certain that the current limitations were temporary. The contrary would have put the whole Logistics Department in a negative light for being unable to supply a basic resource.

War demanded sacrifice, and so Professor Schugel was determined to make his own. He opened the dossier.

"Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff. Graduated from Officer Cadet School at the age of nine. Engaged a squadron of enemy Aerial Mages during a training exercise in the North. The only living bearer of the Silver Wings Assault Medal. Mana pool capacity immeasurable."

He scoffed at the last bit. There was no such thing as an immeasurable mana pool capacity. The Intelligence Bureau responsible for compiling the dossier simply used a scale too narrow to properly assess a prodigious Mage. Regardless, her verifiable credentials met the minimum requirements. He penned the request to the Inspector General to have Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff transferred under his command as testing personnel. They were to do everything in their power to make this happen in the shortest amount of time possible. Any delay in Professor Schugel's work was detrimental to the Empire's technological superiority over the other Great Powers.

With the letter sent, he wiped his ocular to have a closer look at a photo of the new addition to his staff. It came as no surprise that the future of magic technology belonged to a child.

He smirked at the killer determination in her eyes. The Empire would have never allowed a girl of her age to fight on the front line, but the circumstances of her emergence were as abnormal as the testing regimen in store for her. Hence, Professor Schugel was in a good mood.

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Author's note: Click _Next_ for chapter two.


	2. Tanya

Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff arrived in Klusross, a small town not far from Berlun. The long train ride gave her ample time to relax and mock Existence X. The vengeful devil may have reincarnated her as an orphan in a strange war-torn world, but it wasn't enough to break her. She survived the front line in the North, became a decorated Ace and was now en route to her assignment in the rear, where it was safe and the pay was good.

The transfer notice put her under the knowledge of the Tactical Training Department with a secondment to the Inspector General of Logistics Office as testing personnel, an administrative role.

She resisted bursting into laughter about the whole situation. Tanya was barely ten years old and she has already climbed out of the pit Existence X had thrown her into. The military held her in high regard and it was only a matter of time until she'd be back in a seat of power. Like the train she got off of, she was on track for further advancement.

The Military Police stationed on the platform to pick her up identified Tanya by her distinctive air of a war hero. She could have worn a dress instead of military garb and those watching wouldn't have mistaken her for a plain little girl. Wise sages called the eyes windows to the soul and peering into hers brought chills down one's spine.

After exchanging salutes, they took her for a ride to the nearby airbase. Judging by the number of armed checkpoints they passed on the way, it was a pretty secure location. Her eyes sparkled with glee: _Security means safety._

The sign at the gate read, "Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility."

She hadn't heard of this location before. Though, she understood that secret military research, even magic, took place in such a facility. Given this world's uniqueness in that magic was a discipline of science, the military paid special attention to individuals capable of distorting reality and the technologies that augmented a Mage's natural abilities.

These weren't tricks or illusions. If one was born with a large enough mana pool capacity, one could perform miracles at will. The military conscripted such individuals without question, should they have been late to volunteer. At a time of war, a Mage's ability to deflect artillery shells or make explosive spells could provide the rest of the army an advantage. The combination of talent, training and technology allowed the emergence of Aerial Mages, who, if they survived long enough, became an asset on the strategic level, a one man army.

Tanya relished the thought of reaching this level. In her mind, the stint at the testing facility was a stepping stone to making that happen.

It was going to be a bumpy ride. She let her guard down for a moment and felt a jolt as the vehicle drove over a pothole. More came to follow; it was a grating ride.

 _Strange_ , she thought. _The Empire invests heavily in infrastructure. Why would they underfund a testing facility?  
_

She started second-guessing herself when the car took a field detour to pass a charred crater. An excavator on the far side was filling the crater with debris. It wasn't going to finish the task any time soon.

That was when she noticed that the two MPs accompanying her in the car stayed perfectly silent throughout the ride. Tanya knew from experience that Military Police weren't keen on small talk, yet these two seemed troubled.

"What's the commotion about?" she asked, pointing at the crater. The MPs exchanged glances and chose to ignore her question.

The car returned to the road for a short while and stopped. They have reached the air base's living quarters.

It wasn't until she recovered her personal belongings and exchanged salutes with the MPs, meaning that their work was done, that one of them muttered, "Your assignment."

"Good luck. May God be with you," added the other.

Her eyebrow twitched at the mention of a god. Was Existence X setting her atheism up for another trial? That devil could be using her reassignment to lull her into a state of false security to strike when her mind was vulnerable. The MPs didn't show obvious signs of otherworldly manipulation, though. Existence X wouldn't have allowed its pawns to dilute the perception of its power by allowing a reference to luck or random chance. From a self-proclaimed deity's perspective, everything was the result of their grand design.

 _Never hurts to be careful._

Looking around, she realised the facility was populated mainly by people in lab coats, not military uniform. Her arrival baffled them, a reaction Tanya had gotten used to. One didn't expect to encounter a little girl serving in the military.

A member of the site's administration approached her meekly, "Ah-are you by any chance…"

"Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff reporting for duty!"

The scholarly face in front of her averted his eyes and gave her a slow nod before welcoming her to the Admissions Office. Like any organisation, the testing facility followed a set of rules and procedures. Tanya's transfer must have been arranged a while ago and it involved a chain of correspondence that determined the placement most suited to further her development as an Aerial Mage. The testing facility was clearly notified of her arrival and they had a copy of her files on site.

She passed her documents for inspection and bided her time examining the office while the site staffer processed her admission. A thick stack of envelopes in the outbound tray caught her attention. Those were a specific kind of envelope the military used for death notifications sent to families of deceased soldiers. A few more lay unaddressed on the desk. Perhaps, it had something to do with the crater and potholes outside. Tanya acted unfazed by the implications.

"We didn't expect you to come early…" the staffer said as he stamped and signed her paperwork. Tanya noticed that he left the date field empty, so this wasn't just idle chatter.

It concerned her because Imperial scientists were more pedantic about time management than the military. Albeit arriving early wasn't as bad as being late in practice, a scientist would consider both outcomes unsatisfactory. Tanya would have had no problem with the sentiment, had she been informed of the schedule in advance and therefore able to act accordingly. Her previous supervisor was particularly tight-lipped about this deployment.

"I took the first train here when my wounds healed, as instructed." Even a civilian working overtime would have found her explanation reasonable.

The man in front of her glanced at a wall-mounted clock. The time was 7 PM. He nodded and proceeded to write tomorrow's date on her paperwork. What puzzled her was that the Military Police had been anticipating her arrival today. Did they forward false information to the research facility? In any case, it seemed that their miscommunication got her a free evening.

"The Engineering Director will be happy to know you're eager to make your contribution when he learns of your arrival."

Tanya felt uneasy. She understood that one would forge the admission date to avoid going through administrative hell for a measly five-hour gain; substance took precedence over form and an efficient bureaucracy seldom paid heed to such irregularities. Then again, it added ambiguity to her status on the premises until tomorrow if top management was left in the dark.

He looked over her paperwork one more time and grabbed an empty death notification envelope. He was about to slide the documents into the envelope when he remembered something and put them in the empty "Pending" tray instead.

Tanya lost her composure for a second and stared at him wide-eyed.

He nodded again. "Sorry. Force of habit…"

There was nothing to be nodding about!


	3. Late One Night

Tanya's orders were to get plenty of rest and not leave her private room till tomorrow unless something urgent came up. The Empire considered her a precious asset expected to yield ground-breaking results.

Alone at last, she sighed about the prosaic conclusion to the mystery while angry shouting ensued in the corridor. The Klusross Testing Facility was run by Engineering Director Adelaide von Schugel, a veritable genius, whose scientific merits earned him the title of nobility at a very young age. Tanya could relate to his experience, having forfeited her own childhood for a worthy cause. Then again, she wasn't a genius and came without the difficult personality often attributed to geniuses.

If her deduction based on short exchanges with research staff was correct, their reverence for the Engineering Director's intellect matched their fear of his temper. The sheer mention of his name unsettled them.

Tanya considered it a good sign. Scientists were a rowdy, difficult-to-control bunch often waffling aimlessly in ivory towers of their own creation. Fear was one of the few things that gave them a sense of direction all the while keeping them grounded in reality. Therefore, her impression of Adelaide von Schugel was that of an effective manager with scientific credentials. She should have no trouble working with him.

After all, smooth cooperation was in his interest. Tanya understood that the Elinium Factory responsible for supplying the Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility with experimental technology had competition both inside the Empire and abroad. The Folkerr Factory beat it in the previous race for public funds, resulting in the Folkerr Mk 13 Operation Orb becoming a part of standard Aerial Mage equipment.

Aerial Mages fighting on the front line didn't care which facility manufactured their gear as long as it was fit for purpose. Their expectations didn't go beyond maintaining flight up to 6000 feet and basic protection from projectiles. A magic rifle took care of the offensive spells.

Tanya would have settled for any operation orb that didn't explode in her face. If she felt particularly generous in the prospect of an outstanding risk-reward ratio, she would agree to an explosion she'd recover from without damaging her career prospects.

Restless and unable to sleep, she simulated scenarios in her mind of how tomorrow would go, hoping the task would tire her enough to get some shuteye. Try as she might, the noisy construction works outside rattled the windowpanes as well as her teeth. She'd need to learn a sleeping spell to follow her orders in these conditions. There had to be an easier way. Her watch read 11 PM.

She got dressed and ventured outside through the empty hallway to the front of the building. From this vantage point she could at least observe the progress of the repairs. They've finished filling the crater and were now pounding the ground to make it safe to pave over. That was the source of the noise.

"Having trouble sleeping?"

Tanya turned around, expecting to see a night guard. In front of her stood a scientist wearing a fancy monocle that looked like a cybernetic enhancement. The man's gait suggested confidence while his wrinkles exposed an irritable side. He didn't seem at all surprised to find a little girl on the premises at this hour.

Her experience in HR from her past life as a salaryman let her categorise him as someone from middle management or above. She hadn't met him before and wanted to make a proper first impression, just in case. Normally, she would have introduced herself, yet that would have been a faux pas in this situation because it would have faulted him for not doing the same. Tanya felt she didn't have the authority to lecture him on good manners.

A soldier would promptly deny _having trouble_ with anything, but the pair of eyes watching her had a sly streak hidden behind the intellectual front; she'd surely end up _having trouble_ with any follow-up questions. Thus, the best course of action was tell the truth. Men of science spent their entire lives uncovering truths.

"Sir, yes, sir!"

Her firm stance failed to produce an impression. The man lit up a cigarette and puffed before looking at her with disinterest.

"Smoke?"

Tanya's brain went into crunch mode. The orphanage she grew up in punished the older boys caught smoking, which meant such behaviour was frowned upon in this world's model society. Maybe his eyesight was so bad he couldn't tell he made the offer to a ten-year-old? Then again, Tanya wasn't sure the Empire regulated tobacco in any way. The military tolerated it as par for the course. Still, she didn't smoke in her past life and had no intentions to start now.

She played her age by making a disgusted grimace.

The man clicked his eyepiece to switch lenses. She didn't doubt he could see her expression even without the device. This was clearly a test of some sort.

"Smoking stunts growth. Wouldn't that increase your chances of survival on the battlefield?"

In theory, he was right. Tanya didn't have to dodge as many bullets as her comrades in arms because she was a much smaller target. It would be a mistake to assume that was her only advantage, though. When facing enemy sniper fire 4000 feet in the air, manoeuvrability was more important and one needed good lungs to keep up.

"In the short run, yes."

This was the optimal answer. She made her point without openly disagreeing with him and demonstrated foresight by focusing on the long run.

His expression told her that she failed the test.

"A soldier concerned about the distant future?" he asked as if she were a naïve child. Despite her efforts, he appeared to judge her by the cover. "Come, then."

A long walk separated them from the next building. She could have gone without the subtle insults, but being authorised to explore the grounds and let exhaustion sink in was advantageous. The two walked in the moonlight accompanied by the dim electric lights that sparsely populated the area. Tanya realised the testing facility was a part of a much larger military installation with observation towers, plane hangars and a landing strip that stretched far into the darkness. She wondered what kind of aircraft would need such infrastructure.

The noise from the crater subsided as they moved further away. It was far enough from their destination to be sure no one else would hear them talk.

He took one last puff and discarded the cigarette bud. "I expect the Empire to supply soldiers, who are able to focus completely on the matter at hand. Progress won't stand for their counter-productive concerns about the distant future. If I can't have their full dedication now, their career aspirations are misplaced. History, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff, is unforgiving."

As his tone grew tenser, Tanya recognised the voice. This man was the one shouting in the hallway when she got to her room. And he knew exactly who she was and why she came here. Tanya felt her heart sink once she put two and two together.

The guard stationed near the building they were approaching saluted.

"Engineering Director von Schugel, sir!"


	4. God of War

Tanya was at a loss. She would have piped out the same terse salute if the Engineering Director hadn't been leading her on. The prospect of receiving her first negative evaluation worried her. She did her best, but her best was not enough.

Her consolation was that the Engineering Director didn't care about crushing her and was already doubling down on his next target. The night guard trembled underneath a soldier's stoic demeanour. Be it an unconscious twitch or deviation in posture, this fear was impossible to hide from another soldier. Tanya could tell that he had been through this before and adjusted his behaviour to dispel the Engineering Director's anger. The adjustment invariably took its toll on his psyche, making him unfit to face a real enemy on the front line. Such a deployment would have equated to a death sentence. By this point, the guard may have considered his station outside the mess hall his only option.

"Is the mess hall open?" he asked the guard. He knew full well the door was locked and the lights were out.

"Always open for you, sir!"

"See, Second Lieutenant? That's exemplary focus on one's task."

Tanya made a small nod and immediately came to regret doing so. The Admissions Office worker had called it a force of habit, a pathetic excuse for mental conditioning. She had to get herself together. The Engineering Director was blind to the collateral damage his behaviour was causing.

The lights switched on and the guard let them enter the building. Tanya didn't expect to come to the mess hall until breakfast time, but the Engineering Director had different plans in this space devoid of life…and food. She couldn't begin to fathom his next ruse.

Figuring out the meaning behind his compliment to the night guard was difficult enough. The mess hall was indeed open, just not for business. The Engineering Director had no qualms about threatening her career prospects for showing initiative, so it couldn't have been another thinly veiled insult. There was nothing exemplary about the guard's half-hearted appeasement, either.

She found herself withdrawing into the role of an idle observer as the Engineering Director left her standing in the middle of the empty dining hall. He knew his way around the kitchen equipment and seemed to be tinkering with a kettle to make tea.

Realising that he had gone all this way to make her a cup of tea to help her sleep at night should have helped Tanya feel more at ease, but it had the opposite effect. The Engineering Director joylessly filled two tin cups with water and took a careful measure of honey together with a granular substance she couldn't identify.

Done with the brew, the Engineering Director grabbed a cup in each hand and walked towards a dining table. She took notice that only one of the two cups was steaming. He didn't like her stare.

"Did your commanding officer stir your tea on the front line?"

Tanya was beginning to question his coherence. He shot her down for showing initiative earlier and was now asking for it. She deliberated if a lower IQ would have made him a less unbearable supervisor while she raided a kitchen utensil box for a pair of spoons.

She ended up overestimating the number because the Engineering Director had pulled a spoon out of his lab coat. Just like fear, arrogance was difficult to hide from a soldier; both bore the stench of imminent defeat. His presence carried a potent mix of the two, and a short fuse.

"Thank you, but I can take care of myself, Second Lieutenant. Have a seat."

Tanya quelled the urge to stab him with the spare spoon. He didn't qualify as a sociopath since he clearly lacked a conscience and, therefore, deserved the benefit of the doubt. The premature conclusion that he was, in fact, a full-blown psycho could seriously hinder their cooperation as well as her advancement in the military. She wasn't going to sacrifice herself for his idiosyncrasies.

It didn't stop her from toying with them. Tanya stirred her cold tea with both spoons and tried to mimic the Engineering Director's reserved demeanour after she sat down. The impatient turning of his multi-lens ocular told her that he bit the bait.

"Second Lieutenant Degurechaff, did you deposit your operation orb for safekeeping at the Admissions Office?"

Of course, she didn't. It was right there, hanging under the collar of her uniform. Tanya didn't expect him to pull the subject of procedural violations into the fray. She stopped stirring the tea.

"I wasn't notified of this requirement when I arrived."

"Considering you've arrived tomorrow, you weren't notified of many things."

Tanya had to hand it to him for subtlety. Her legal status on the premises was in limbo until tomorrow's date. In theory, he couldn't do anything to her because her signature was missing from the admission documents. In practice, a misunderstanding reported to the Department of Personnel Affairs would raise questions in the future. It wouldn't surprise her if he pressed the false date issue to gain leverage.

"Where is your operation orb?"

She detached the orb from its holder and put it in front of him on the table. All Officer Cadet School graduates in her year got the same Folkerr Mk 13 model, a red rectangular gem in metal casing. This operation orb had saved Tanya's life in battle.

"I asked for an orb, Second Lieutenant. This is a cuboid."

"They also call it a computation jewel." Tanya let her sass slip out and watched his indignation rise. The feeling that she grossly misread the Engineering Doctor's motives put a squeeze on her thought process.

"That's right, and _they_ are wrong. I've proven them wrong at the Imperial Technology Research Laboratory Investigation Committee. It's a travesty to limit the revolutionary concept to mere computations and it is madness to expect a calculator to make you fly or lay waste to your enemies."

He removed his eyepiece and picked up Tanya's orb, turning it between his fingers in disgust. Tanya glanced at his eyes, her thoughts grinding to a halt as she noticed how small his pupils were. Did he really have poor eyesight? This would mean Tanya's mental image of him was flawed and that he had fiddled with the ocular lenses out of necessity.

"Calling this knick-knack a jewel is too generous. The shape is all wrong and I doubt this paperweight can leave a scratch on a hostile Mage."

He chucked the operation orb in the air dismissively. Tanya jumped up alarmed that it would break upon touching down and cause an explosion. She caught it an inch above the table.

The minute relief gave way to exasperation with his flippant attitude. His actions were true to his words, but one couldn't dismiss the Mk 13's power. Tanya wanted to call him out over his envy of the Folkerr Factory winning the military procurement agreement in the previous round. It would have made sense. And that was why she didn't do it. She stopped being sure she understood his modus operandi.

"Engineering Director von Schugel, I-" she interrupted him, to no avail.

" _Professor_ Schugel, Second Lieutenant. Like the thing you are holding in your hands, I have many names, all of which except one are wrong, the latest being Chief Engineer. I am Professor Schugel first and foremost. The rest are a transitory product of nomenclature. That is what I will let you know when you arrive to my testing facility tomorrow morning. Now then-"

"Professor Schugel…" she tried again, more forcefully than the first time. He reached out to put his ocular back on, letting her continue, "I engaged a squadron of Aerial Mages from the Federation with an orb of this type and I am aware of its destructive potential."

"Is that so? My hypothesis is that it can't even boil water." He flashed a grin at her and folded his arms. It was the first time his expression betrayed mild interest.

Tanya got her chance to prove him wrong. To prove herself right! She seized the opportunity to beat the arrogant Professor Schugel on his own terms. All she had to do was place her tin cup above the operation orb, channel some mana and watch a cloud of steam raise his respect for her.

She had to be careful. If she let too much mana trickle in, the cup could punch a hole in the ceiling.

It was a promising start: the operation orb glowed a deep shade of red, indicative of the small amount of mana coursing through it. The tin cup levitated off the table until it appeared directly over the operation orb. Its temperature was rising and Tanya thought she could go for style points by making the cup spin.

Professor Schugel remained still throughout the experiment. Confidence in her failure didn't abandon him despite condensation forming on the cup's rim.

The experiment was kind of fun. She didn't imagine she could use her operation orb this way. The discovery could revolutionise field kitchens and reduce the weight of an Aerial Mage's battle gear by providing warmth at high altitudes.

Just as she was about to crack a smile once the tea started gaining colour, another sign of imminent success, the operation orb fizzled out and the cup keeled over, making a spill. Tanya gasped. It was going so well! She had everything under control. Her orb could handle magic loads many orders of magnitude above this child's play.

She felt cheated. Professor Schugel knew this would happen. He set her up! Tanya gazed into his eyes, hoping to see the kind of mockery that drives the final nail into the coffin. Instead, all she saw was disappointment.

He picked up the broken operation orb, checking its internal damage with his ocular.

"To be expected of the Folkerr Mk 13. Shoddy craftsmanship stripped down to the very basics, unsuited for precision. And, as you've demonstrated, you're better off using a kettle." He passed his cup over to her and patted her on the back.

Professor Schugel gave her many reasons to doubt his sanity, but his competence as a scientist was beyond reproach. If such a simple task could disable operation orbs carried by many Aerial Mages of the Empire, she had serious reservations about the transparency of the Folkerr Mk 13's procurement process. She knew she shouldn't jump to conclusions, but she'd have wagered her Silver Wings Assault Medal that Professor Schugel had notified the Inspector General of Logistics Office about the issue in advance. Perhaps, her first impression of his standing in the Imperial meritocracy wasn't far off.

She took a sip of the tea she was offered. Professor Schugel's spoon was still in the cup.

 _Touché_ , Tanya thought, yet Professor Schugel didn't care about referencing his earlier comment. He had something else to gloat about.

"Come tomorrow, I will introduce you to a real operation orb. With it, you will tower above the other Aerial Mages like a strategic bomber, silence joint artillery forces and make the enemy pray to you for a quick death."

The mention of prayer struck a chord in her psyche. Existence X would have _killed_ to see her pray to it. How ironic it would be if Tanya was the one the enemy would pray to as their last resort.

"Like a god of war…" she whispered into the cup. The swirling steam dissipated from the force of her breath, letting her see her reflection.

"Making all of the other so-called gods obsolete."

She couldn't hold back her excitement any longer. If what he said was true, he was her ticket to challenge, no, overthrow Existence X!

"I am looking forward to receiving that order, Professor Schugel."

"Have you learnt nothing, Second Lieutenant? Focus on the matter at hand! You have five minutes until the sedatives knock you out!" he exclaimed as she was about to take a full gulp. "Don't worry about sleeping in."

She ended up taking two. This god of war was ready for shuteye.


	5. Missing Page

She woke up in cold sweat to the sound of an explosion. Her eyes darted around the room, looking for cover as the cannonade continued. Tanya kicked her bedsheet away and rolled off to grab her rifle. If the enemy had launched a surprise attack, she wouldn't be caught dead unarmed.

The booms were intensifying. Her hear rate went over 100 whilst tiny body prepared for fight or flight. It felt like the next explosive would hit the living quarters at any moment. Tanya checked her options: she didn't stand a chance against aerial bombardment without an operation orb and the testing facility was just one immobile target, so she'd have to make a run for it.

The window was her best choice. Exiting through the door would take too long, and the last thing she wanted was to be stuck in a box of improvised shrapnel and wait for the ceiling to crush her.

A large shadow blocked off the light out Tanya's window.

She panicked. The enemy was on to her plan and cut the only viable escape route. Spitting expletives left and right, she braced for impact. It couldn't end like this; she was too young to die in her pyjamas!

Once she got to visualise her second funeral, she blinked and realised the shadow was gone, along with the explosions that had woken her up. Breathing heavy on adrenaline, Tanya approached the window and peered at the morning sky. The sunlight was hurting her eyes, but she was too alert to react. The thing that startled her was faster than anything Tanya had ever seen in this world. Confident that it didn't outright vanish, she kept looking for something that would stand out in the environment.

The answer came in the form of a black speck followed by an uneven trail of smoke high above the horizon. Smoke turned into an open flame, preceding a bright explosion. That was the end of her morning disturbance.

Shaken, she let go of her rifle and went right back to bed. Tanya was used to rude wakeup calls on the front, but this was a secure location deep in the Empire's territory. It would have been guaranteed suicide for a hostile power to attempt guerrilla tactics this far away from reinforcements. Hence, this being a testing facility, it had to be a new type of military technology.

Tanya snorted about the outcome of this test: a pile of hot debris in the middle of the countryside. _Serves them right for waking me up_.

Her head aching and her eyes swollen from staring into the sunny sky for too long, she recalled what Professor Schugel had told her last night: "Don't worry about sleeping in."

It was too early for murderous rage, so she groaned as she whacked her head against the pillow. She slept like a rock after being given sedatives with her tea, but the scientists apparently had the means to disturb rocks.

There was no point in staying in bed; if that explosive thing didn't wake up everyone else in the building, she would interrogate them to reveal their secret.

She had imagined her first day to be full of excitement about the amazing things she'd get to do. The miserable expression under a haystack of a hairdo staring at her in the mirror was not the Tanya she had anticipated to see today. Regardless of her mood, she was a soldier, so she performed her morning routine like every other day.

The testing facility must have had quality intel on her because she heard a knock on the door the moment she got dressed. It was the Admissions Office worker. He was holding a document folder.

She let him in. He obviously had news. News she could have used a little earlier.

"Apologies for the intrusion. Your orientation is scheduled for today."

She had a good idea of where he could stuff that apology and she'd help him get it there, too. This event was another strike against his competence.

"Speaking of which, here is your ID badge and itinerary for today. Sign here to acknowledge receipt."

Tanya took the papers he gave her and glanced over the contents. Considering what happened last night, she had to be careful about putting her name on anything received from an incompetent worker. She ended up signing the form; there was no way it would return to bite her later on.

The Admissions Office worker gave her a quick and effective orientation speech, which surprised her in the light of his general incompetence. It sounded as if he had said it so many times it became engraved in his memory, _a force of habit_. She had no questions about the orientation. In fact, everything she could have eventually inquired about was included on a FAQ list on the back of the facility's map she was given. Tanya was glad to shut the door behind him confident she wouldn't bump into him any time soon.

 _You can't teach an old dog new tricks, the proverb goes, but the tricks it does learn up to that point can be honed to perfection._

According to her schedule, she had ten minutes until it was time to go to the mess hall. She thought she'd use some of it to get acquainted with the map, but a discarded page she spotted on the floor caught her attention. The Admissions Office worker must have dropped it. And she was beginning to doubt his incompetence…

"Huh?" The things she saw written on it had her sitting up straight by her writing desk. This was huge.

It was a page from her dossier compiled by the Intelligence Bureau. A few phrases were highlighted and annotated with what looked like angry scribbles. Thankfully, she had read plenty of cursive writing in her previous life and had the eyes to discern the letters. The job would have been even easier if she hadn't been startled awake or stared at the sunny sky. She rubbed the irritation away and yawned heartily to buy her the will power to concentrate prior to her morning coffee. The page included an excerpt from her character profile with examples to back up each conclusion.

The Intelligence Bureau described her as "focused" and "forward-thinking", two traits that someone circled and connected with an interrobang. Her "aggressiveness in battle" was also highlighted, a mysterious comment scribbled on the margin next to it: "Emotionally unstable. Rectify."

Her fingers drummed on the page as she read on, impressed by both the Intelligence Bureau's level of detail and the annotator's ability to read between the lines. The longest comment stood by her "focus on career advancement", with the first word double-underlined. The comment read: "Test susceptibility to positive, negative reinforcement. Apply reverse psychology to expose emotional response."

She stopped drumming and stared at the page with a blank expression. It felt as if she had read a life threat, only she was physically safe. Someone was trying to decipher her inner self to later break it and rearrange the pieces as they saw fit. The fact it was likely to be someone from the testing facility made her dread having to go to the mess hall. They would watch and scrutinise her every move for personal gain.

 _That's not how a meritocracy works!_

It was Tanya's plan for her comrades all along. She wouldn't have guessed she'd encounter someone as crafty as her so early in her career. The list of suspects was a long one at this point, but she'd find out their identity sooner than they got a chance to make a move.

Tanya was running out of time. She saw the word "flexible" with the same double underline and the phrase "Causal link" scribbled on the margin. The most cryptic comment appeared next to her mana pool capacity description. The dossier called it "immeasurable". There was a drawing that looked like the aftermath of an explosive spell in a measured three-dimensional coordinate system, a reference to the previous page that she didn't have, and a complicated equation the end result of which was ten. The other figures she identified in the equation corresponded to the number of confirmed kills from her engagement in the North, but she couldn't go beyond a hunch since she didn't have the rest of the dossier. It was time to go, anyway.

She picked up the page and went straight to the Admissions Office. While it pained her to go this route, she couldn't risk the missing page being randomly found in her room or on her person. Even if she threw it away or burned it out of sight, there would be an investigation and her name would appear on the list of suspects. The author of the comments was either a direct competitor or someone in the chain of command with legal access to her personal information, so it paid to be careful.

The Admissions Office worker was stuffing death notification envelopes when she entered. He invited her to come closer with a slow nod.

"You dropped this in the hallway," she said as she put the page on his desk. It sounded better than outright admitting she found it in her room and read everything instead of immediately returning the page.

"Oh…" He looked at the wall-mounted clock. Was he checking how long it was since he returned to the office? He nodded again and put it in a named filing cabinet. Tanya gulped at the name on the cabinet. "Thank you. Engineering Director von Schugel was looking for this. He'll be happy to know you've found it."

She left the living quarters more miserable than when she woke up, which should not have been possible.


	6. Item 95

The sky had gotten cloudy by the time Tanya left the living quarters. It could get worse, much like her mood. She rejected the offer for a guard to drive her to the mess hall to seem polite. In reality, she wanted to finish sulking alone and let the walk recharge her spirits to make a good first impression on everyone in the mess hall.

Professor Schugel was bound to be there. Watching. Analysing. He deserved her respect for zealously doing his part to further the Empire's war effort, but his methods irritated her on end. If the bit with the missing page was another mind game supposed to rile her up, Tanya would congratulate him on his success with a vigorous handshake and a bullet to the head.

Perhaps, that was why she was forbidden to leave her residence with her rifle. As testing personnel, she couldn't carry any magical equipment, lest it interfered with the experiments. Her protests were fruitless since the testing facility was in a secure location cordoned off from the rest of the world by multiple military checkpoints. The guards wouldn't understand that the real enemy, Existence X, could strike anyone at any point, so she conceded to their demands.

Today's itinerary was light on the details. It included diagnostic checks of equipment labelled "Item 95A", "Item 95B" and "Item 95X", followed by lunch and a study session with Professor Schugel. The name of the session was four lines long. On the bright side, none of these activities looked dangerous, but boredom was clearly on the menu.

Her stomach would digest that if it had to. She was behind her fine-tuned eating schedule. Aerial Mages followed an enhanced diet to compensate for the additional energy needed to produce mana. The deeper a Mage's mana pool capacity was, the more was required to keep it at the optimum level. Preventing it from continuously evaporating into thin air was a chore that strained a Mage's mental faculties. This was a logical necessity during a battle, but one had to be even more careful in the rear: allowing one's mana to saturate a confined space could result in something worse than a gas explosion. All Tanya knew about her mana pool capacity was that it exceeded the standard scale and routinely damaged special measuring equipment supposed to deal with above-standard loads.

In terms of magical power, Tanya was the equivalent of a nuclear power plant in a world dominated by coal. She was pleasantly surprised that the ones in charge of the facility seemed to understand they had to keep their nuclear power plant fuelled by tending to her appetite. The moment kitchen staff saw her shiny ID badge and medal, they hauled out a tray of food Tanya wanted to squee about. This was the physical manifestation of poetry sung by a literary genius. She would have taken standard rations without audible complaint, but this exceeded her boldest fantasies of government-funded rear-line dining.

"Please accept our sincere apologies for serving sponge cake, Second Lieutenant. The pulsejet test caused the chocolate soufflé to fall flat."

Tanya had already eaten the cake with her eyes as well as everything else on the tray. Double eggs, bratwurst, black forest ham, potato pancakes, steamed vegetables, sauerkraut…and that was just one plate. Whoever had typed up her itinerary committed a serious crime by failing to disclose substantial information about the local breakfast speciality. She would have raced the pulsejet to save her soufflé.

Her brain took a few seconds to process their apology. Tanya acknowledged the problem with a light nod and carried the tray to a free table, letting the kitchen staff sigh in relief about the amicable outcome. The weight of the dishes and their imposing size put her dangerously off balance, but she carried it to the finish through will power alone. The easiest way to lose great treasure was to let someone else carry it for you.

She cackled in her mind about the situation. Professor Schugel went out of his way to make amends. He must have realised that Tanya could complain about any issues now that she was formally a part of the testing facility's personnel. She was happy that Professor Schugel was missing from the scene. It helped her feel more at ease while she exchanged greetings with the other members of staff. The scientists were mindful, considering her success a prerequisite for the whole testing facility to succeed. One of the soldiers offered Tanya his apple juice when he noticed she had already drunk hers and still had a lot to feast on.

The guards had fewer courses on their trays and wanted her to know that it was the norm at the testing facility since Aerial Mages had a "second stomach". She felt strange about being told about it so plainly because she expected there to be at least some envy. The military personnel on-site had seen many experiments go wrong and must have come to the conclusion that, in the worst case scenario, their survival depended on her wellbeing.

One piece of advice, whispered in the middle of a friendly pat on the back, made her food difficult to swallow: "You'll know your limit only after you break."

Paranoia reared its ugly head. These people had every reason to be on her good side and she couldn't spot any competitors, yet the thought that this was a form of manipulation on Professor Schugel's part lingered in the back of her mind. By that logic, negative reinforcement came next.

Professor Schugel would have his work cut out for him, though. With the last fragrant drop of coffee rolling down her tongue, Tanya relished the feeling of satisfaction. She took care of her tray and left the mess hall basking in the afterglow. Even the rain couldn't bring her spirits down.

A vehicle that resembled an airport shuttle cart, used to tow luggage trolleys, was waiting for her outside. It had one trolley, containing three ornate security boxes, attached to its rear end.

"Second Lieutenant Degurechaff! Klusross Taxi, at your service."

A corporal sitting behind the wheel waved at her. Like everyone else his age, who didn't experience the taste of the battlefield yet, he tried to hide his anxiety behind a veil of youthful optimism. It would be useful to probe someone inexperienced like him for information, and the shuttle had a roof to protect her from the rain. Still, Tanya needed to check who stood behind this gesture; shuttle service wasn't a part of her orientation.

"Aerial Mages come with legs, corporal."

"Engineering Director's orders, Second Lieutenant. Hop on."

She missed the informal conversations, during which she would be the one to assess the other party without risking her own image. The small talk she participated in had a tendency of affecting her future in some respect, forcing her to be alert at all times. She suspected the corporal felt the same way, but there was a major difference between them: Tanya had the advantage of extensive HR training from her previous life.

"Professor Schugel is too kind," she began as she got seated. The shuttle zipped forward.

"Pro-what? Oh! Right! A very special kind. Keeps everyone focused. Did you know he's the only civilian left in charge of a facility of this size?"

Tanya regretted not having brought a notebook. The corporal's play on words told her he didn't have a high opinion of Professor Schugel. Though, she had to admit her choice of flattery could have been considered sarcasm.

"No, I did not. I thought he was just the Chief Engineer."

The shuttle slowed down to let a heavy truck pass. It was loaded with debris that emitted smoke despite being out in the rain. Tanya recalled the pulsejet test and made a mental note to ask somebody about it in due time.

The driver continued, "Oh, that, don't call him that. He is…or was the Chief Engineer at the Elinium Factory in a closed town not far from here. Crazy dangerous place, very polluted."

He turned the window wipers on. It was a smooth ride and he obviously knew where to go, but the rain was getting intense. The splish-splash of raindrops together with the wheels whirring past puddles made for a mellow atmosphere.

Tanya would have enjoyed the tour of the testing facility more if it weren't for an uneasy feeling about the cargo behind her. There was something off about those boxes. She couldn't identify it, but there was a certain magic pull. Mana seemed to gravitate towards them, and it wasn't just her own; other Mages were nearby.

"Klusross used to be quiet, too quiet. That's no good in the military, yeah? He lands the job and here we are, competing with Folkerr. _The_ Folkerr." He then made a quick turn that had the tyres screeching.

They arrived in front of a plane hangar outfitted with large sliding doors.

"That's your stop. You'll want me to pick you up for lunch."

Tanya thanked him for the tip and got off, not a spot of rain on her perfectly polished boots. She was about to observe a trio of Mages with active operation orbs handle the boxes when a familiar voice barked front and centre.

"Second Lieutenant Degurechaff!" Professor Schugel greeted her. She couldn't tell whether it was excitement or irritation. "How are you?"

He really didn't look like the type to care about her emotional state, so this had to be a formulaic question.

"I'm ready, Professor Schugel."

He pointed at the Silver Wings Assault Medal she wore on her uniform and motioned at a table with what looked like the testing crew's personal belongings. "False. Remove that award at once. It will interfere with diagnostics."

She struggled to unpin it. This was harder to do without a mirror. Professor Schugel took her to task.

"And now we're behind schedule… Factor your inefficiency into our timetables, Second Lieutenant!"

She placed it on the table and saluted, in part to mock his pedantry. "Ten seconds, sir."

"There are eight people in this hangar, Second Lieutenant! You're wasting everyone's time, not just your own."

The hangar door sealed shut. Bright lights focused down on a big circle in the middle of the hangar. She learned that it was going to be her stage. Tanya would play to an audience of antennae and cameras specially crafted to capture magic signatures. Most of the equipment looked brand new. The hangar itself appeared to have undergone many repairs. There were signs of welding works on the ceiling and scorch marks on the concrete floor. Tanya consciously ignored any stains, should she accidentally have spotted a crimson one.

Professor Schugel stood close to a monitoring station together with his assistant and two other scientists in lab coats, one monitoring the antennae and the other taking notes on his clipboard. Three burly middle-aged Mages accompanied Professor Schugel. Their glowing operation orbs, all Folkerr models, signified full battle readiness. It must have been embarrassing for Professor Schugel to rely on equipment he considered utterly unreliable.

Tanya entered the lit circle as instructed, closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. She sensed trace mana interference lingering in the hangar. Numerous Mages must have conducted magic here to result in such a broad palette of magic signatures. The part that triggered an alarm in her mind was that a successful spell didn't leave discernible long-lasting traces as it effectively consumed all the mana a Mage fed into it.

Mana didn't spoil or rot, since it was not physical matter, but the extrasensory stench led her to believe only a fool would write it off as mere failure. This place witnessed tragedy and Professor Schugel's choice to stand back and deliver his orders via loudspeaker advised caution.

The way his aide handled the contents of one of the boxes with long ceramic pliers, careful not to touch anything with his hands, fuelled her suspicion that the risks involved were severe.

"Begin the diagnostic test. Item 95A."


	7. Boiling Point

Professor Schugel's assistant took something out of the security box using the pair of long ceramic pliers. His movements were swift and precise, yet his grip betrayed anxiety. If he pressed any harder, Tanya expected the small object he had picked up to break. As he approached her, one of the scientists instructed her to put on a headset and ignore any outside noise, which there was plenty of.

Industrial ventilation spun into action. The lights dimmed down everywhere except for the small circle in the middle occupied by Tanya. She heard a vehicle drive up to the hangar. The main door was sealed, so she couldn't see what it was.

Despite the dimmed illumination, she spotted a paramedic sneak in through a small emergency exit. The strobing lights of an ambulance parked nearby reflected off of his uniform as he entered. The military wouldn't pull such resources unless there was serious risk of injury.

Professor Schugel invited the paramedic to the monitoring station, where they exchanged whispers, all the while looking at Tanya. The green hue of the monitoring equipment gave the two men a ghastly look. Tanya struggled to read their lip movements, but the little she could discern did not inspire confidence: the word Professor Schugel and the paramedic mentioned several times was "fire".

The calm and collected voice of the other scientist monitoring the situation came through her headphones, "Second Lieutenant Degurechaff, congratulations on meeting the requirements to participate in our testing programme. Your supervisor Professor Schugel and I are happy to work with you. Throughout the programme, you may consider me your councillor. Do you have any questions about these initial conditions?"

"I have no questions, councillor." She had plenty, but she didn't want to provoke Professor Schugel to take over the communications role. Tanya preferred not to deal with someone who only knew how to escalate an issue.

"Thank you for your clear answer, Second Lieutenant. In the first test, your reaction time will be measured. This is the quantitative criterion. You are expected to flawlessly carry out orders issued to you via the headset. This is the qualitative criterion. At the end of the experiment, you will be ranked against a database of Aerial Mages, who have already completed this test. Are you ready to proceed?"

The rules of engagement were clear. The bar was raised high, as indicated by the "flawlessness" requirement, and she was competing with other Aerial Mages in the Imperial military. She wondered how many of them had a Silver Wings Assault Medal to vouch for their ability to complete the task. The realisation that less experienced Aerial Mages "completed" the test put a smile on her face. Her real worry would have to be not to leave the others too far behind. Perhaps, injury and fire contingency planning was a standing procedure at the testing facility.

"I'm ready."

Professor Schugel's voice boomed from the loudspeakers, "Safety crew, raise level one barrier. Assistant, on my mark."

One of the three other Mages in the hangar walked in front of the monitoring station. His active military days were over, yet his resolute demeanour and build were a testament to his resistance to time and the toll it has on one's faculties. The magic shield he raised may have been barely big enough to cover the three scientists and paramedic at the monitoring station, but its girth was impressive. It would easily withstand an artillery shell.

"Second Lieutenant, you are to hold Item 95A, presented to you, and not let go until given the order to do so," the councillor addressed Tanya through the headset.

Professor Schugel clicked his hi-tech ocular a few times to scan the environment. His colleagues were looking at him expectantly while his assistant waited for the command to do his part.

He lowered his head to the microphone. "Mark."

The assistant hastily stepped into the well-lit circle and released the object he was carrying from the pliers into Tanya's hands. Once she caught it between her palms, she only got a glimpse of what it was. Her curiosity would have gotten the best of her had it not been for the order to keep holding it and the effect the object had on her.

Item 95A had a smooth silvery surface on one side and a pale pink crystal on the other. Both sides seemed to be very cold, but rather than get warmer to the touch, it appeared to continuously sap heat from her fingertips as if her gloves weren't even there. The uneasiness she felt about the process prompted her to eavesdrop on the scientists' chatter to get some answers; the noise isolation of the headphones was rather poor, anyway.

"… Mana consumption nominal. Temperature below activation."

Tanya pretended that she hadn't heard that. A mana drain would have explained the discomfort and its sensory manifestation, only she had to figure out a way to counter it without failing the test. It was easier to concentrate mana than pull it away from a specific point, so she went for the mental exercise Aerial Mages did ahead of firing a magic bullet.

"Do you feel any different, Second Lieutenant?"

Her mana wasn't behaving like it normally did and the councillor's question caught her off guard. She hadn't factored the object's ability to attract mana when she started focusing.

"… Temperature rising."

Professor Schugel grabbed the councillor's microphone. "Answer the question."

Tanya opened her mouth to speak only to realise that her mana immediately veered towards the object. She struggled internally to rein in the mana while addressing the scientist, "I. Am. Fine. This thing. Is. Very sensitive. Professor Schugel."

He did not look convinced; Tanya didn't hold that against him. The problem was that his engagement made it more difficult to concentrate and the growing amount of mana she had to juggle in her tiny body meant that she needed a different plan. At this rate, she would feed the object enough mana for an explosion spell.

"What do you mean with 'this thing' and 'sensitive', Second Lieutenant? Produce a clear answer."

Tanya panicked. The thought of having to respond while keeping her mana away from Item 95A was driving her up the wall. Comforting heat flowed into her fingers, which further weighed on her mental state because she had not intended for that to happen. She was losing it.

"… Activation temperature reached."

She did not know what it meant, but it sounded a lot like confirmation of her losing it. Tanya's mind was under attack and Professor Schugel had no consolation to offer her. Arms folded, he waited for Tanya to respond, showing complete disregard to the disaster brewing inside of her. He would rather see her die as a failure than help. After all, he had the luxury of all the monitoring equipment to tell him exactly what was going on.

 _Those death envelopes won't fill themselves, huh?_

Repulsed by his image, Tanya shifted her gaze to the Mage tasked with casting the protective barrier and saw an uncaring face of stone. That Mage must have seen many of his comrades fall victim to Professor Schugel's intransigence. There was no denying their death poisoned future spells cast in the hangar's vicinity for years to come.

Then again, if Professor Schugel and his team didn't care about her, she didn't need to care about them. In fact, she would follow her instructions to the letter and ignore everything outside her headset as meaningless noise. Professor Schugel, the paramedic, the bright lights–they were just transitory constructs she could annihilate on a whim.

She felt her anger subside, followed by fear and confusion. In the back of her mind, she was aware that she was breaking up, fragmenting not just her perception of the world around her, but also her inner self. Fooling the mind to fall apart and isolate the necessary pieces from harm was a gruelling task that Aerial Mages resorted to during emergencies. The mind eventually adapted to a particular fragmentation method, making it ineffectual, forcing the Aerial Mage to go further down this dangerous path. Insanity stood at its end; there was always the risk that the pieces wouldn't reform into a coherent whole.

Tanya hadn't lost herself, though. Her unyielding eyes faced their nemesis while the strength of her will protected the bulk of her mana from Item 95A. The little it managed to tear from her was not lost in vain, as the way Item 95A interacted with the mana gave her insight to the object's inner workings.

Mana may have been taken from her in a disorderly fashion, but Item 95A arranged it according to a specific internal logic before letting it in. The size, shape and materials it consisted of also clued her in to its function. Professor Schugel has outdone himself in taking a concept and going mad with it.

"This thing is an operation orb. It reacts to everything I say, do, think."

Professor Schugel took a few seconds to respond. He first looked at his colleagues, who did not approve of his plan. "How do you know it is an operation orb?"

"I can feel it draining my mana. I know that if I connect to it, it will light up."

The verbiage was off, she had to admit. It was the best Tanya could come up in her reduced state. The ability to speak in full sentences was a marked improvement, considering she did not explode while doing so.

"Why do you say you 'know' that you can connect to it? Did you receive such information from other members of staff?"

He was either doubting Tanya's aptitude as an Aerial Mage or provoking her. Regardless, after having her mana and mind toyed with, she spent enough time holding Item 95A to learn that it was a grotesque and hypertrophied version of a standard operation orb. Words continued to escape her, but she refused to give up.

"There is…an internal switch. I'm trying not to let my mana reach the switch, but a part of it is seeping through. I can visualise its internal mechanism. It resembles a standard operation orb's design. I was not informed of this by members of staff."

Her reply was meant to carry information without triggering the feelers of Item 95A. Professor Schugel stared at her blank face in amusement. He gestured emotionally as he exchanged whispers with his colleagues until they all nodded, meaning that some sort of agreement was reached. Having withdrawn her consciousness to focus entirely on the task, she saw everything, yet was unable to process it in her mind.

"Second Lieutenant, why are you trying not to let your mana reach this so-called switch?"

"I was given the order to hold, nothing else," Tanya answered without delay.

Professor Schugel paused. His face remained close to the microphone, so she could hear him waver. Something in her reply must have genuinely surprised him. Tanya would have been glad had she left that part of her mind active.

"Excellent. Your second order is to prevent any mana from reaching the switch."

He was late to mute the microphone and Tanya got to hear the protests of the other scientists. Professor Schugel's order seemed unreasonable to them. Tanya still had to carry it out. She just needed more information to understand, which part of herself she should plunge into the abyss to make it happen.

"Professor Schugel, there are other Mages nearby."

"You understood the order correctly, Second Lieutenant. Any mana." Professor Schugel ignored the councillor shaking Tanya's itinerary in front of his face. Professor Schugel didn't care if he improvised, but the councillor's notice about the schedule gave him an idea. "May I remind you that you are being timed."

Tanya blinked confusedly. The stone face of the Mage in front of her was beginning to crack with fear. His operation orb glowed brightly, an indication that he put everything he had into the barrier.

"… Temperature at boiling point."

The heat emitted by Item 95A grew exponentially. Tanya's lapse in concentration let the operation orb pull a good portion of the mana she was harbouring. Her mind was in crunch mode over the requirement to block the other Mages' mana as well as any residual mana caught by the operation orb from the environment.

It dawned on Tanya when she realised the last part: even if her grip on her own mana was perfect, the mana left over from unsuccessful spells by previous testing personnel would have interfered with her performance. There was no way an Aerial Mage would come prepared to block such a wide spectrum of environmental magic. Every time someone failed this test, their failure increased the difficulty for the next person. To continue testing on the same premises was suicide.

All they had to do was move to a different location. Tanya wanted to scream about Professor Schugel's bull-headedness. It was insane to keep doing the same thing in hopes of achieving a different result.

"Second Lieutenant, what is your progress?"

Tanya stifled her vocal cords. The intense heat was beginning to char the surface of her gloves. A mix of pain and anger brewing alongside the mana that gravitated towards Item 95A coaxed her to let loose and just throw it at the monitoring station, so Professor Schugel would get what was coming to him.

She resisted the temptation to the best of her ability, hissing through clenched teeth, "I'm doing my best, s-sir!"

Tanya's gloves caught fire. The flames rushed to engulf her uniform. She was stupefied by the macabre sight of mana going out of control in the physical world.

"… Core temperature critical."

Professor Schugel tore off his ocular and chucked it at the ground. He yelled into the microphone, "You are going to melt if you don't do better! This would reflect badly on your assessment…" He then gave the microphone to the councillor; his bellows found their next target, "Safety crew, raise level two barrier."

The paramedic prayed for Tanya's life.


	8. Unholy

Seeing the paramedic cross himself enraged Tanya more than the possibility of burning alive for Professor Schugel's intransigence.

"No. No, you won't," she muttered into the flame about to swallow her hair. The wicked grin that contorted her face prompted the Mage standing closest to her to take a step back.

The second member of the safety crew ran forward to project a much larger magic barrier in front of the first. Their efforts amused her.

If she was to go down this way, ten barriers wouldn't be enough to contain the resulting explosion. After all, this was the fault of Professor Schugel's handiwork. Item 95A sucked in enough of her mana to activate and begin consuming residual magic left behind by its previous victims. Its pull snowballed in response to her refusal to supply mana, for such was Professor Schugel's order.

Standard operation orbs took in small amounts of mana to allow an Aerial Mage to tap into its power at will. Ignoring this idle mana requirement was a non-issue as long as one could afford the hassle of reactivating one's operation orb, a luxury out on the front.

Professor Schugel put Tanya in a completely opposite predicament. Item 95A behaved like a black hole, continuously drawing mana to its core. The more it drew near, the more Tanya had to deal with and it didn't take long for her to sense mana that was not her own pulled into the fray.

Worst of all, the immense heat produced by the operation orb during the process was about to cause a medical emergency. Tanya's renewed vigour to fight the operation orb exacerbated the issue. It was pointless, like trying to pull light out of a real black hole.

"Safety crew, level two!" Professor Schugel barked.

Tanya cackled at the futility, her laughter reverberating in the expansive hangar to return as a mangled demonic echo. Professor Schugel expected a safety crew Mage well above the age of service to work in conditions that drove her–the only living bearer of the Silver Wings Assault Medal–off the deep end.

"Magic interference, sir," the safety crew Mage complained.

She expected fear to finally break Professor Schugel. The monitoring equipment would have told him one barrier wasn't enough to withstand this much agitated mana. To add insult to injury, the first Mage's operation orb malfunctioned, which left Professor Schugel and his team defenceless.

Tanya revelled in the moment when Professor Schugel realised his own order would be his downfall, but he didn't give her a reason to be happy. He remained stoic while the other scientists looked to him for permission to abort the test.

It was too late to abort and Professor Schugel knew that. He could have told Tanya to start using the orb, only its core would have gone into meltdown and caused a much bigger explosion than the one they were risking now. In practical terms, sacrificing eight people and a medical crew was better than razing the whole testing facility.

The religious paramedic ran to the emergency exit. Tanya couldn't help feeling ecstatic about the cowardly display.

 _Where is your god now?!_

She cursed Existence X under her breath for forcing her to put up with this, but she was confident that otherworldly powers were not directly involved in the current situation. It meant she had a say in what would transpire and her say was as brilliant as the operation orb's silver casing burning into her fingers.

Tanya had no means of outright stopping this madman-made black hole. Every action she had taken was met with a strong and opposite reaction. The escalation had brought her beyond the point that would permit her to exit the loop unscathed, but it didn't prevent her from changing the rules of engagement.

Logic dictated that forcing too much mana into the operation orb would face partial rejection of input. This was against Professor Schugel's order and the operation orb was likely to explode in the process. Since the source of the problem, the operation orb, could not be removed Tanya had to deal with the symptom.

She was desperate to deal with the symptom. The operation orb would have been more manageable without tongues of flame licking her eyelashes. Fortunately, these flames were borne by magic, and magic was Tanya's turf.

Time seemed to slow down as the madness she experienced gushed outside through frightening expressions and laughter, leaving an internal void for logic to fill. Mental fragmentation was never pleasant, but she was better off pushing the negativity she had accumulated out where it wouldn't bother her. Her decision came with the bonus of giving everyone save for Professor Schugel and the third, idle Mage from the safety crew a panic fit. Tanya could afford to be patient with the last two. After all, it wouldn't be fun if they broke too soon, huh?

Tanya may have unintentionally shouted obscenities directed at Professor Schugel during her moment of intense concentration. The catharsis she pursued didn't leave room for regret.

Lights flickered and the ground shook as Tanya tinkered with her magic signature. Her mana twitched under the force of her will, and the unnatural backwardation she tried to achieve didn't take long to reflect on her physically. The metallic taste in her mouth and crimson running down her nostrils were two clear signs of internal bleeding; she hated the idea of more injuries lying dormant to bring her down when she would least expect it. Just like one's body, one's mana did not react well to excessive manipulation.

Having suffered enough, she expelled the altered mana at great angular velocity, forcing it to spin around the operation orb. Once it encountered her normal mana, the two variants cancelled out each other's agitated state. Tanya's consciousness was too focused on the search and identification of the residual mana remaining from unsuccessful spells of previous testing personnel to notice that the bleeding intensified.

Professor Schugel was staring at this ten-year-old girl laughing hysterically, engulfed in flames. Blood trickled from her gums, streaks of red drew down from her eyes and nose. A less experienced person could have considered her a demon even without witnessing her effect on the environment.

Low-pitched vibrations unsettled the staff while energies outside the sensory capabilities of the monitoring station produced erratic readings. The amount of agitated mana was growing and subsiding at the same time. A power outage was imminent, but Professor Schugel didn't bother to notify his subordinates to bring reserve power. The chaos Tanya stirred from the bottom of her being would have made short work of that, too.

Dirty red flashes disturbed everyone's peripheral vision. The Mages from the safety crew blinked in shock and awe since they couldn't observe the fleeting phenomenon directly. At the same time, Tanya saw it as an inflating magic bubble meant to amplify the operation orb's pull of remaining mana towards her.

Professor Schugel reached out to his microphone, "Safety crew, disable your operation orbs and vacate the hangar until further notice."

She attracted the bitterness and anger locked in the unfinished spells of deceased testing personnel. The concentration of contempt for life expressed in magic that she manipulated was exhilarating. The colours she had swirling around Item 95A were nothing short of magic poison. She would have never guessed such a potent amount lay dormant in the air, walls and floor of the hangar. If not handled with care, this mana would cause madness.

Tanya's mana drowned the swirling remains, extinguishing each frequency in a series of flashes. Injuries, explosions, deaths–Tanya's mana annihilated everything magic that came its way until there was nothing left to consume.

The fire that threatened to end her dissipated like specks of dust. The operation orb had nothing to feed off of in the environment and Tanya carefully observed the mana scraps it tore from her reserves. By alternating the normality of her mana, she annihilated whatever fuel the operation orb had picked up, effectively cutting herself off as a source. The cold sensation returned to her fingertips.

"… Temperature is dropping. Item 95A is idle."

Sounds of clapping got to her through the self-inflicted hateful daze. The scientists, all but Professor Schugel, were applauding her.

Tanya's headset was fried, as were the lights and monitoring equipment. From a resource perspective, this was a disaster, and yet Professor Schugel's colleagues were overjoyed.

Unable to use the microphone, Professor Schugel walked in front of his station, put out his hand and addressed Tanya, "Second Lieutenant! You are to give me Item 95A to conclude the test."

Sweet deliverance almost got her to lose concentration and return to square one. As expected, Professor Schugel soured her victory with another challenge: "The second order stands until you are done with this task."

Tanya approached him groggily, blood dripping on the concrete with every step. Nothing could wipe the smile off her face, though. Professor Schugel didn't want to show it, but what he did was the biggest expression of trust thus far. He stood there alone without the protection of seasoned Mages, equipment or his colleagues.

He waited patiently for her to shamble over, no prickly remarks or condescending looks. Professor Schugel understood that forcing the operation orb to behave on the move was harder than when standing still, so if there was a flaw in Tanya's method, it would manifest at this stage.

"What's next?" she asked as soon as she returned the operation orb.

Professor Schugel inspected the operation orb with a spare ocular his assistant brought him. The magnificent silver craftsmanship has lost its sheen, soiled by Tanya's blood and sweat. He ended up giving it to his assistant to clean. The pliers were no longer required.

Tanya was still high on endorphins, so she didn't notice that she could barely stand upright and was about to keel over.

A pair of strong arms caught her just in time. Tanya looked up and, despite her daze, identified the face of the religious paramedic. She guessed it was his way of saying he was sorry for his cowardice.

Tanya elbowed him in the groin. This was her way of saying she would rather take the fall than see him ever again. Professor Schugel had the sensibility to assure that without a word spoken.

A medical team rushed in to take care of Tanya's bleeding and assess her medical condition. Professor Schugel overlooked the process while holding a clenched fist to his lips. The schedule was likely dependent on Tanya's health and he was worried about any delays.

The monitoring equipment was busted, so he couldn't proceed as planned. He checked his watch and, after pacing a few circles around Tanya and the medical team, muttered matter-of-factly, "Next, Second Lieutenant, we make tea. You know how to make tea, don't you?"

She sighed in relief before she realised what it meant: another chance for the experimental operation orb to end her career…


	9. Pot, Kettle

The serenity of rainfall helped Tanya cool off outside the hangar. Warm mist hung above the runway. Flight tests were cancelled, people were moving slower. It was quiet for a change. The explosive echoes in her head started to settle down.

Professor Schugel was seated comfortably behind a field table while he waited for Tanya to join him. Despite the rain, the table as well as the path leading up to it were dry. It was when Tanya noticed one of the three Mages from Professor Schugel's safety crew observing her from a distance. She hadn't seen this Mage in action, but his skillset appeared to be different from that of the rest; his magic shield set up in the air remained completely invisible as it annihilated any raindrops that touched it.

The medical team that examined Tanya had overcome Professor Schugel's insistence to continue testing. His way of accommodating their prescription for Tanya to be hospitalised and thoroughly checked for latent internal bleeding was a "tea break". Tanya was mortified to learn they agreed to this alternative.

Weren't doctors supposed to care for their patient's wellbeing? Professor Schugel sure didn't. In fact, he was a walking hazard for everyone around him, including himself. In Tanya's previous life, such a hazard would have been placed in padded cell, not given a military testing facility to lord over.

Tanya approached the table painfully slowly. In part because walking was painful, but mostly because she needed a break from Professor Schugel. She would have settled for any other scientist on his team.

"How are you?" he asked once she sat down in the empty chair.

"Impaired sight and hearing, burns, muscle pain, fatigue, dizziness. Shall I continue, sir?" She didn't care that he would ignore her answer.

"Excellent. Sounds like you're alive."

It was useful to know his threshold for good news. As long as she was alive, he had the licence to try and chance that with reckless experiments. He must have figured out a way to utilise comatose testing personnel by now.

"The medical team wasn't as encouraging in their assessment…"

Professor Schugel waved his hand dismissively. "They tend to get bogged down in minutiae. What's important is that your internals will adapt to the current conditions and we'll be back on track, albeit with a slight delay."

"Perhaps, it would be a good time to request an improvement of labour conditions?"

Tanya was testing the waters with this question. In essence, it was a procedural threat that would raise questions higher in the chain of command about Professor Schugel's skills as facility manager. The part that concerned her was that the locals considered batches of death notification letters leaving the facility the norm. Other than sending prospective human resources to the graveyard, the facility consumed ample supplies for repairs, which meant that the higher-ups obviously knew of the costs associated with Professor Schugel's tenure. What was there about him that the military valued above all else? He was just another crazy scientist. Had he been as brilliant as he imagined he was, he wouldn't have lost to Folkerr in the race to manufacture operation orbs for the whole Imperial military.

"Focus on the matter at hand, Second Lieutenant! I have requisitioned a dozen custom fireproof uniforms in advance, but, as you must know, the military supply lines are stretched and the Inspector General can only guarantee delays, you being one of them."

She must have hit a nerve to get a straightforward accusatory reply. Professor Schugel seemed more defensive than usual. The fireproof uniform order made the impression that he wasn't fully responsible for what had happened, but, in fact, he was responsible. He could have waited for the uniforms to arrive to avoid burns appearing on Tanya's list of grievances. The large order was also suspect because it indicated the uniforms–and the wearer by proxy–would quickly fall into disuse from other forms of damage.

Tanya elected not to aggravate him more because his tirade was getting dangerous.

"The lifecycle of temporary testing personnel consists of four stages: careless, whiny, unfocused…dead. You have the liberty of ranking yourself on this scale as you please. Data and any verifiable recordings of your performance were lost when the monitoring equipment malfunctioned, which is why I am unable to formally reprimand you."

"Reprimand me?" She bit herself for asking that question. His audacity had caught her off guard and she was genuinely surprised to hear it. Though, now that she picked the proverbial nail up, Professor Schugel was bound to hammer it home.

"You have failed the qualitative criterion. You have failed to respond to questions. You have failed to carry out orders in a timely manner. And you have assaulted a paramedic for no valid reason. Anyone present during the test can vouch for your misconduct, but science is based on theory backed by empirical evidence, not personal recommendations, so I will not request your transfer back to the front, either."

The ten-year-old orphan part of Tanya urged her to lower her eyes in shame and shrink after every blow. There was a rational explanation for everything she did, and the applause at the end of the test were proof that she did well. An ignorant outsider could have faulted her for attacking that paramedic, but she had a valid reason to do so and, given the choice, she'd do it again. Harder.

She didn't have to swallow her pride in the end. Either Professor Schugel had a unique definition of empirical evidence or he was willing to turn a blind eye to protect her from the consequences of attacking medical staff. Such a bout of physical aggression would not have gone without retribution on the front. Professor Schugel appeared to have dismissed the idea.

Tanya did her best to suppress a smirk: how much leeway did she really have while under his supervision? If Professor Schugel's requirements for her were any indication, she was likely to get away with blowing up half of the testing facility as long as she was fit to continue testing.

"You are too kind, Professor Schugel."

His assistant ran up with supplies. He handed Professor Schugel the cleaned operation orb and started unboxing a tea set for two. He also put a pair of white gloves next to his supervisor.

Professor Schugel spun the operation orb between his fingertips, a content smile adorning his face. "Ah, there it is. Look, Second Lieutenant. Perfect and clean, fresh from the acid bath. Machine-crafted from the finest materials you have ever seen in an operation orb." He brought it up to her face, but pulled it away the moment she raised a hand to take it. "Ah-ah, you're not touching this masterpiece with your dirty fingers."

Her fingers weren't dirty. They were burnt and bandaged. They also hurt like hell, but that wasn't the part Professor Schugel cared about. She paused when she realised what the gloves Professor Schugel passed to her were. The smooth, rich fabric was a pleasure to wear and those in service had fond memories of wearing such gloves because they were associated with special occasions.

"An officer's ceremonial gloves?"

"Certainly. A tea ceremony awaits you, Second Lieutenant."

There was a catch to his words and the wound-up egg timer he put on the table proved her suspicions. Professor Schugel had a knack for subverting one's expectations without coming off as a liar.

"You are on break, so this isn't a test, nor is it mandatory. Think of it as a personal challenge. You've failed to boil water with your old orb. Maybe this one will give you the confidence boost you need?"

That last bit made it mandatory, in her view. Professor Schugel formulated the offer in such a way that assumed she was comfortable with being a failure if she rejected it. It was also a simplistic way of gaming the system that valued form over substance: absent coercion, any injuries Tanya would incur during the course of the challenge would be her own fault. Then again, Tanya had to admit to herself that she would have taken the first opportunity to give the operation orb dubbed Item 95A a try outside the testing regimen.

"Professor Schugel, you expect me to conduct magic in this state?"

Seeing that she already had the gloves on in tacit agreement, Professor Schugel handed her the operation orb while his assistant presented a lidless military kettle with enough water to fill a teapot.

"Unless you've lost the ability to use healing magic, your state is much better than it was at the beginning of your break."

Tanya didn't like the term "healing magic". Doping oneself at high altitudes to diminish the crippling effects of a low-oxygen environment or plugging small wounds with mana could hardly be considered healing. The spells were temporary and they further stressed the body, making the actual healing process that followed more complicated. If there was a safe way to manipulate one's mana to permanently rebuild damaged tissue, Tanya would have already mastered that technique.

"Besides, Second Lieutenant, you have called 'this thing' sensitive, so it should be easier than making tea the old-fashioned way."

Tanya visibly soured from his reference. It was very unfair of him, considering her mind was fragmented at the time and he was well aware of the limitations that state involved.

"Heating up water takes the same amount of energy, sir, regardless of source."

"If your ideal method is as inefficient as starting a fire, I suggest you resign from service. The Empire won't tolerate such a waste of resources from an officer with outsized career aspirations."

That was a step too far. She would have let the facetious resignation remark slide, but calling her ambitions outsized was a different matter entirely. Tanya knew what she wanted in this life and she was dedicated to achieving her goals in the most efficient way possible. Her ambition was proportional to her skill level.

Tanya caught herself focusing on the operation orb when she recalled Professor Schugel's notes from the missing page. He was planning to test her reaction to positive and negative reinforcement. It was rude of him to exploit her weakened mental state by conducting experiments on her with inconsequential banter.

She was in too deep to regret or back out, though. Clean activation followed by a breath-taking sense of freedom when her mana rushed to the core diluted her awareness of the real world. There was no question Professor Schugel developed an extraordinary piece of tech. The satisfaction she felt was akin to starting a brand new luxury car for the first time after years of driving a rust bucket on wheels.

A responsive core that continuously channelled mana between different magic aids for immediate casting, ample internal space to enable supercharged spells, a heuristic system with bypass capacitors for uninterrupted, noiseless alternation between offence and defence–those were just a few of the features Tanya discovered. Even without the subtler extras, Tanya realised this orb elevated the user's proficiency to work with combinations of spells rather than individual mana injections that resulted in one spell each. The question in the user's mind was not the standard "Which spell should I cast next?" but "Should I have cake with the coffee I'm drinking while these five spells I've queued up annihilate the enemy?"

Excitement got the best of her when she forced too much mana into the operation orb and sent the kettle flying. Instead of levitating a few inches above the table as intended, it zipped so high Professor Schugel needed to switch his ocular to maximum magnification to spot it.

"Monkey business belongs in a zoo, Second Lieutenant."

Professor Schugel's assistant offered Tanya binoculars to guide the kettle back to safety. On an average day, she would have cheered about how strong she was, yet she guessed that the purpose of this challenge was to teach her how to carefully meter her mana.

The sky in Tanya's binocular view flickered as the kettle descended. If this was the effect of the magic barrier that protected them from the rain, blinking out to let the kettle through, it exceeded Tanya's understanding of the maximum size of a barrier and distance to the Mage casting it. Regular operation orbs offered a small personal shield and any deviation from the norm came with huge trade-offs.

Drops of rain covered the binoculars' lenses as the barrier let through more than it was supposed to. Professor Schugel opened an umbrella he received from his assistant.

"I hope you like your tea leaves soggy, Second Lieutenant." He then looked into the distance to find the Mage responsible for the barrier and yelled, "Some Mages don't seem to understand the concept of barrier localisation!"

"Wouldn't that put too much strain on the standard Mk 13 operation orb?" Tanya asked as she magically slowed the kettle's descent until it returned to its starting point above the table.

Professor Schugel took out a notebook. He seemed unsure whether the question should impress or irritate him. "We don't have enough data to make that conclusion, but your preposterous forward thinking gave me an idea for a new test." He ended up scowling when he saw what Tanya was up to. "What are you doing?"

"Boiling water, sir."

Tanya did the obvious thing by levitating the kettle close to the operation orb and using mana to heat the kettle's bottom. It had gotten so hot it glowed bright yellow even though Tanya stopped heating it up moments ago.

"No, you're damaging the kettle! Cool it down this instant and focus on the water."

Aerial Mages excelled at high-energy spells that increased heat. They didn't practice burning mana to cool something during training since the utility of cold spells was situational at best. Hence, Professor Schugel's request was easier said than done. Tanya didn't want to go through the trouble of manipulating her mana again, so she did exactly as she was told.

The water inside the kettle made a poofing sound when all of it instantly turned to steam. Professor Schugel looked unhappy after he checked inside the now-empty container, even though she had followed his instructions to the letter. The laws of thermodynamics were not her fault!

"I suppose we'll have to chew on those soggy tea leaves, Second Lieutenant."

"Can't we just ask for more water?"

"I'm glad you're volunteering to walk in the rain all the way to the mess hall. This break must be doing wonders for your health. However, you will have to explain to kitchen staff what you did with the first batch and why, and I want to save you the embarrassment... You'll have to find what you have lost."

 _Foot in mouth. Foot in mouth_ , Tanya chanted in her mind. Against her own better judgement, she gave in to the temptation to talk back: "You're asking for the impossible, Professor Schugel."

Professor Schugel's bored expression told her everything she needed to know. He really was asking for the impossible and it was her "personal challenge" to get it done. Just a regular day at the Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility.


	10. Safeword

Tanya had picked a battle she couldn't win. Professor Schugel was her supervisor, after all.

"Right. That was a slip of the tongue _._ "

"Don't worry, Second Lieutenant; Mages are born with a plethora of speech impediments."

She walked right into that one and had no one else to blame. It pained her to think about the possibility this was Professor Schugel's attempt to cheer her up rather than another subtle poke. His way of thinking was so different that she had given up trying to decipher him. For all intents and purposes, he was a crazy scientist. Tanya made a mental note to remember that whenever dealing with him. He wasn't as strict as a military commander in some respects, but that only made him more dangerous; the rational scientific surface lulled one into a false sense of security only to be preyed on by his deep-rooted insanity.

Looking up at the misty sky, Tanya realised the complexity of her task: refilling a kettle with water her magic accidentally had turned to steam. Gathering moisture into a container was a dull, time-consuming and pointless activity that any Aerial Mage could do. Picking out droplets containing an infinitesimal amount of one's mana on a foggy day in the middle of a downpour ranked several levels of magnitude higher on the pointlessness scale.

It wasn't impossible, though. Just really-really hard. An Aerial Mage's ability to affect reality was, in broad terms, limited by their skill level and mana pool capacity. Manipulating small objects was safer and required less mana than hunting down hostile Aerial Mages in the sky. Then again, the hunt for such an enemy was easier because a flying person stood out from the rest of the environment in many ways. Their unique magic signature alone acted like a beacon that took little skill to detect.

Tanya could identify her own magic signature with ease. The problem was that it was loosely attached to water droplets that were constantly moving in a sea of other tiny objects and interferences. Simply put, the targets did not stand out and there were millions of them. If she were to fulfil Professor Schugel's order, Tanya would have had to focus on individual droplets to bring them back to the kettle, which was a fool's errand.

She took some liberties with the order and pulled down a part of the mist to the table with the excuse that she wanted to have a closer look to find the right droplets. In reality, she just needed enough moisture–any moisture–to refill the kettle. It didn't matter if it was the specific water she had evaporated away. Water was water.

"Second Lieutenant, I don't think this is ours."

"Unless you can prove it comes from a different water cycle, Professor Schugel, I will finish what I started."

Tanya felt the taste of success and it was delicious. With the kettle refilled, she willed the rest of the mist away and resumed focusing on the tea making. All she had to do was take a little mana–careful not to overdo it–and let the operation orb uniformly process the water to reach the perfect temperature.

Everything went exactly as planned. Done with her part, Tanya kicked back in her seat and watched Professor Schugel's assistant tinker with the teapot. She got to enjoy a few minutes of silence. Professor Schugel was probably thinking up another way to make her miserable, but it would have to wait for the tea to steep. The layer of mist was slowly rising and the rainclouds didn't look like they had much strength left.

With luck, she would get to see the sun before going back to the hangar. She enjoyed an ever-changing sky. It stimulated productivity and balanced one's mood swings. Not that Tanya had mood swings. Hers was a mood rocket named Professor Schugel.

The assistant poured Professor Schugel a cup of tea and, judging by the movements of his nostrils, Tanya's mood was in for a crash landing.

"What a unique blend. You should try some, Second Lieutenant. Jasmine and kerosene, is it?"

Tanya sniffed her own tea and was about to flush with embarrassment when she remembered that the operation orb stayed active the entire time. It was a risky idea, but so was everything else on the testing facility. Tanya focused down the smelly foreign substance in Professor Schugel's teacup and stealthily evaporated it away from his face. She repeated the process with her own tea and looked back sternly at Professor Schugel.

He put the cup down and folded his arms. "I am convinced this is the proof we need to debunk your assertion."

"You must be mistaken, sir. My cup is fine. Try it yourself," she said as she passed her tea to his side of the table.

Professor Schugel was taken aback by the absence of kerosene in Tanya's tea. While he was preoccupied, Tanya decided to make it even more fun by using mana to lightly damage the surface of the teacup that he left unattended to make it look a bit dirty. The experimental operation orb wasn't made for such shenanigans, but Tanya would be damned if Professor Schugel didn't deserve to be wrong.

"All it takes is a clean teacup, sir."

Professor Schugel inspected his own teacup, the ocular lenses shifting to get the right zoom. How did such an obvious flaw get past him? "Second Lieutenant, you're right!" he exclaimed. Did he owe Tanya an apology now? He brought his nose up close to the liquid. "Strange. I don't feel the scent anymore even though the dirt is still there…"

Several trucks rumbled towards the hangar; the replacement equipment has arrived. The commotion distracted Professor Schugel from asking Tanya uncomfortable questions. He rose from his chair, swiftly grabbed the still-warm operation orb and turned to leave along with his assistant.

"Finish up, Second Lieutenant. I expect to see you back inside when the time comes."

Tanya watched him depart. He was paying too much attention to the operation orb for it to be a good sign. That didn't change until an officer, who arrived with the trucks, served him the delivery manifest. The officer didn't help the others move any equipment and, judging by the insignia, he was a big shot from the Inspector General's Office, the department responsible for putting Tanya in the testing facility.

Leaning against the chair's backrest, Tanya slurped her tea while watching the action unfold through her binoculars. The egg timer Professor Schugel left was still ticking, so she could bide her time while Professor Schugel raged at someone he answered to. Without approval from the Inspector General's Office, he wouldn't have the resources to continue his experiments.

It didn't look like the officer was going to depart, which gave Tanya an idea: if something were to go wrong and people got hurt in his presence, the officer would have to report back to the Inspector General with a scathing assessment. Withholding such information from one's superiors was a serious offence.

She turned back around, put the cup down and sighed, her head drooping slightly. "If only it were so easy…"

The Mage keeping an eye on her must have lost interest because the rainfall resumed. Tanya picked up Professor Schugel's discarded umbrella. That sky barrier the Mage had projected was a useful trick to learn. She could probably accomplish that after a few tries even without an operation orb. She did have enough mana to short-circuit mana measuring equipment.

Professor Schugel's egg timer was close to the end of the countdown, prompting Tanya to hop off to make her way back to the testing area. She took care not to step into any puddles like before. Her boots were smudged from the previous experiment, so a splash wouldn't have made a difference, but it was more fun to frolic this way with an umbrella in hand. She'd be damned if she didn't deserve to have fun.

Preparation works were well in progress when she got inside the hangar. The first thing she noticed was that the soldiers put a bulky landing mat in the middle, where she stood during the first test. There were more people, too. Aside for a full medical team and a fire engine on standby, there were more scientists and a group of armed soldiers. It didn't look like the hangar door was going to be closed this time.

The councillor's polite tone greeted her, "Second Lieutenant Degurechaff, please, walk this way."

A mole-like old man with a bald head and tremendous glasses was waving at her. She hadn't really paid attention to his appearance. All the scientists looked the same to her.

"Professor Schugel delegated me to brief you on this next test while he's…attending urgent matters."

The shouting match between the representative from the Inspector General's Office and Professor Schugel was ongoing near the distant end of the hangar. They probably didn't want to bother anyone else with the argument, but the echoes were hard to ignore.

"Are you all right, child?"

Albeit his genuine concern was refreshing, Tanya was a soldier, not a child, and she needed the councillor to understand that. As harmless as he appeared on the outside, this man was on Professor Schugel's team and he was entrusted with the briefing.

"Sir, yes, sir."

She was far from all right. Her eyes were still puffy red from the earlier incident and her hearing made up distant echoes. Fatigue was the worst offender, making her look pale and unmotivated. The councillor nodded to her decisiveness; his lowered gaze betrayed a sense of guilt about what he was going to do.

"I have good news for you, Second Lieutenant. Instead of testing three operation orbs today, you will only test two. Professor Schugel deemed your level of…preparedness sufficient to immediately move on to Item 95X."

Tanya learned to distrust scientists delivering so-called good news. His solemn tone and uneasy fidgeting of the hands were tell-tale signs that the opposite would befall her.

"I am honoured, councillor."

She watched three soldiers labour to lift the safety box containing Item 95X onto a loading cart. The councillor surveyed a checklist attached to his clipboard and added a few items to the cart before it was hauled to the central area of the hangar. The box must have been extremely heavy if it took several members of the Imperial military this much effort to push forward.

"I saw a Mage carry it on his own earlier," Tanya quipped.

"Oh, yes. Our safety crew excels at defensive spells, including endurance boosts that let the mana do the…heavy lifting." He laughed at his own pun. It wasn't funny.

Professor Schugel together with the representative from the Inspector General's office were coming back. The stormiest part of the conversation appeared to be over, which let both men discretely exchange words with the councillor. Tanya had a bad feeling about the attention the upcoming test was getting. If she were to screw something up in front of this public, the reverberations could crush her chances of a comfortable life in the rear. It would be challenging to discredit Professor Schugel without falling flat on her own face.

As if to confirm her worries, Professor Schugel walked up to Tanya and handed her a sealed red envelope.

"Take it. The councillor will fill you in. The interest of the Empire is in your best interest."

Before Tanya could internalise the meaning of the cryptic phrase or figure out what to do with the envelope, the councillor hobbled over, urging her to get a move on to her station.

The councillor saw her apparent confusion and said, "That envelope contains your safeword."

"I need a safeword?"

Her question gave the councillor pause. "It is a standard procedure when working with Item 95X. You have the right to use the safeword at any point to suspend the test. Only Professor Schugel and you know what it is, so saying it won't jeopardise anyone's credibility. As you can see, Second Lieutenant, your safety is in our best interest."

It sounded too good to be true.

Tanya opened the red envelope to check what was written inside. She smiled nervously at what she read. The safeword was: "I am scared. I quit. Take me back to the front."

At least Professor Schugel was honest about her options.


	11. Dullahan

Tanya blinked to dispel her twitching eyelid. She was likely to be marked down for lack of self-control in her final evaluation if it persisted.

"Professor Schugel has a…sense of humour," Tanya said in a way that imitated the councillor's speech.

The councillor either chose to ignore the poke or he was too busy reviewing his notes. "He finds it useful to motivate testing personnel. Always looking for your best interest."

 _Looking as if it were his prey._

Tanya cherished safety. She had gladly accepted her transfer to the rear, thinking it was a safe bet. The con artist responsible for placing her under a crazy scientist's command to test potentially lethal, if technologically impressive, inventions deserved special recognition in the form of a firing squad. Who would send a ten-year-old girl to be experimented on by a madman?

The imbeciles from Norden, who had her fend off a whole squadron of enemy Aerial Mages during a training exercise, came to mind.

She hated her own sharp intellect for making it painfully obvious that the current situation was worse. The fundamental rule that assured survival on the front, "Kill or be killed," did not apply in the rear. However, Professor Schugel's involvement stressed the prominence of the rule's latter half. He could push her as far as he saw fit, yet she had no means of pushing back without hurting her prospects in the process.

Tanya had to succeed every time just to shamble on. All the enemy needed was one lucky shot. She loved those odds. To bits.

"Here we are, Second Lieutenant. This will be your station during the test."

"Huh?" Tanya snapped out of her bloodthirsty daze. Her predatory grimace mellowed down once she saw it reflect off of the councillor's prominent glasses.

He mistook her reaction for criticism of having to begin the test from a protective landing mat. Tanya may have found it insulting to her status as a bearer of the Silver Wings Assault Medal. The councillor didn't want it to look like anyone was doubting Tanya's skills.

"A standard measure. We have no reason to believe this will affect the outcome of the test. Experience, nevertheless, warrants caution."

She didn't care. What mattered to her was that he didn't doubt her sanity. Tanya preferred to keep Professor Schugel alone on the crazy pedestal.

"What is my objective?"

"Your enthusiasm is unparalleled, Second Lieutenant. This is going to be an ordinary indoor flight test."

Armed guards, paramedics, firemen–just a few basic accoutrements an Aerial Mage would pack for a flight, if the councillor was to be believed. Tanya purposefully let her irritation show. The councillor deserved it, especially after subtly berating her for trying to cut through the conversational BS. "I'm not normally accompanied by a fire engine and an ambulance, councillor."

"Ordinary by our standards, Second Lieutenant. You will have the time to get used to these cumbersome procedures if you're intending to…continue gathering experience under Professor Schugel's wing."

The councillor smiled at her in the end. It was a dangerous, knowing smile. Like Professor Schugel, he saw what happened to the previous testing personnel and he may have had a hand in sealing their fate. Her options were to join them or submissively "continue gathering experience". Tanya made a mental note to inquire about the full testing schedule. The military couldn't have allowed the testing facility to hold on to her indefinitely. That would have been the equivalent of a death sentence.

Professor Schugel's voice boomed from the new speaker system: "Begin final preparations. All non-essential personnel are to leave the test site at once."

The guards assumed their positions across the hangar's perimeter. Several of them pointed their bayonets squarely at the middle circle where Tanya would be standing.

She didn't let her intimidation show. What were they expecting to happen, anyway?

"Item 95X is a precious military asset the Empire cannot afford to lose, Second Lieutenant. Should anything feel wrong, you have the safeword at your disposal."

"Understood."

She understood that they considered her a potential thief. Only a madman would have plotted to steal a unique operation orb from a military facility, which was why the revelation should not have surprised her; a madman was in charge of the facility.

The three safety crew Mages formed a diagonal line between Tanya and the scientists stationed near the wide-open entrance. It made for impressive commotion, but Professor Schugel was deluding himself if he assumed that to be sufficient to survive the worst case scenario fuelled with Tanya's mana.

Since she cleared the hangar of any perceptible leftover mana other than her own, the effectiveness of her spells has increased together with their destructive potential. Hence, the erratic chatter between Professor Schugel and the monitoring specialist that she overheard amused her.

"Magic interference status," Professor Schugel requested.

"… No anomalies."

"Crosscheck."

"… Acknowledged. No anomalies."

Professor Schugel leaned over his dashboard and looked vaguely in Tanya's direction. She was the anomaly that had normalised the hangar's ambient mana. Anomalies were difficult for a scientist to accept because they skewed results, so a scientist would often discard them to avoid problems with data analysis. Professor Schugel didn't have that luxury.

He reached out for the microphone. "Begin diagnostic test. Item 95X."

Flood lights placed on the floor around Tanya's station switched on. Professor Schugel's team probably didn't have enough time to raise them to the ceiling to replace the broken ones. It was cathartic to see the other side bend under tight deadlines.

The councillor paused her observation by handing her an intricate metal ring with blinking diodes. "Here, Second Lieutenant, put this on."

"What's this?" Its opening mechanism loosely resembled a handcuff, but it was too big to go around one's wrist or ankle. She watched the councillor's reaction attentively and resisted rushing to conclusions.

"A backup monitoring device. It is made of a material highly resistant to magic and will continue to record your vitals in a number of…hypothetical scenarios."

His hesitation made her suspicious of its real purpose. She refused to show it and quickly shot back, "Doesn't an operation orb already do that?"

"In case of a pending force majeure event, Professor Schugel will also use this device to terminate the test."

An explosive collar. They were expecting her to wear an explosive collar.

Tanya's so-called "safeword" allowed her to "suspend" the test. Suspensions were temporary by nature. Professor Schugel was the one with the right to "terminate" it, meaning that the decision would be final.

The councillor always weighed his words carefully, which absolved him of moral responsibility for misguiding Tanya. His use of semantics allowed him to hide the truth in plain sight with the hope that the other side would make the wrong assumptions and carry on as if nothing happened. Professor Schugel's propensity to subvert expectations taught her to always seek clarification to avoid being fooled by the scientists. The Imperial military would sometimes fail to disclose important information due to miscommunication; an understandable occurrence at a time of war. The scientists did so on purpose to further their own agenda. She pitied the previous testing personnel, who lacked her experience in sniffing out such verbal tricks. An HR manager learned this skill early on when informing rejected candidates about their failure to meet the mark in a way that made them feel good.

"I would like to file a formal objection."

Questioning one's orders in the military had severe repercussions. Tanya's bet, however, hinged on a scientist's leniency, not that of a military officer. Making her more comfortable with the testing regimen was likely to yield better results. The compromise she had in mind was a definite win-win.

The councillor gave her objection an all-purpose antidote, "You may use your safeword at any time, Second Lieutenant. Until you do, we must proceed with the test. Everyone is counting on you."

It ailed her to imagine the enormity of everyone's faith in her in the context of putting an explosive collar around her neck. One could definitely trust someone they could behead on a whim. Professor Schugel was likely to be the one to hold the detonator, too. Her life and death were in the hands of a madman.

She put the explosive collar on. Professor Schugel was preoccupied with something else, which further disgusted her. If he were to crack a smile or mock her, she'd at least have the satisfaction of calling him a sadist. He demanded thankless sacrifice that brought misery to everyone around him, including himself. For what reason?

Because he was afraid. He was afraid that someone would steal one of his inventions. Tanya snorted in contempt at the thought. If the residual mana she had to deal with in the previous test was any indication, Professor Schugel's inventions killed enough Aerial Mages for him to be considered a hero by the enemy. The Empire's best option would have been catapulting him to the Federation to let the problem solve itself.

Wishful thinking wound her up more about the injustice she experienced. She glared at the councillor to begin the briefing ASAP. He seemed glad to oblige.

"In this test, you will interact with Item 95X for the first time. You are to activate Item 95X, achieve vertical elevation of at least six feet and try to maintain it inside the hangar for a period of at least ten seconds. At the end of the test, you are to deposit Item 95X back in its safety box. These are the qualitative criteria. You are recommended to follow any additional instructions you receive from Professor Schugel and myself via headset or directly, should your headset malfunction. Your reaction time will be recorded and your performance ranked against a database of Aerial Mages, who have already completed this test. Are the initial conditions clear?"

On the surface, the task was as easy as sleeping. The devil was in the details. Namely, something was supposed to handicap her to make these simple actions look like an achievement. She was to "try" to maintain flight and Professor Schugel made any additional orders voluntary. The sudden burst of kindness was mind-boggling.

Professor Schugel was no fool and this one fact worried Tanya. He pushed her to the limit with equally simple instructions while testing Item 95A. She could handle the wounds and exhaustion; she was a soldier and would go through more of the same if she had to. The risk of injuries was clearly on the table and it had gone up, as evidenced by a beefed up emergency crew.

The explosive around her neck also had a purpose. A know-nothing would have guessed it was there to stop an out-of-control mana reaction. A conventional explosion didn't make agitated mana any less agitated, though. The purpose had to be a counter to an event the armed guards couldn't handle. The councillor called it a "pending force majeure" that had to be stopped at all costs.

Theft of Item 95X had to be stopped at all costs, but that didn't count as a "force majeure event". Passive deterrents like the presence of guards and anti-air batteries should have been enough to dissuade a reasonable person. The explosive would have been necessary to deal with those who lacked the ability to reason.

Only sane people were accepted into the Imperial military to become Aerial Mages. Their sanity was monitored throughout their years of service and Tanya had no doubts Professor Schugel's previous testing personnel met that description. The explosive collar requirement was, therefore, introduced not because of their state of mind, but due to the risk of that state of mind becoming altered. Professor Schugel expected the alteration to happen during a test of Item 95X.

Dark thoughts swirled in her head when she realised the collar's purpose. A representative from the Inspector General's Office was in the hangar, which meant the higher-ups condoned the extreme security measure as well as Professor Schugel constructing an operation orb that could render the user insane.

Tanya wasn't ready for this. She resorted to mind fragmentation during the first test because it had escalated to a life-or-death situation. The idea of clinging to a measure of last resort right at the start had her fuming inside. This was a recipe for disaster.

"Second Lieutenant?" the councillor interrupted her train of thought.

"Crystal."

The more she thought about it, however, the more she liked the trade Professor Schugel had unwittingly offered with this test: her sanity in exchange for their lives.


	12. Enter X

Professor Schugel ignored Tanya's bemused stare. This test could be the last for both of them and Tanya didn't feel as confident as him. He stood behind the protection of three Mages, armed guards and a remote detonator to the explosive collar around her neck.

The only safeguard from the experimental operation orb's insanity-inducing effects Tanya had was her skill.

She also received a pair of dark-tinted goggles from the councillor.

"Item 95X can get…bright."

"Makes sense," Tanya quipped. At this point, it wouldn't have surprised her if pregnancy was another possible side effect of using the operation orb.

The googles did a good job blocking out the flood lights, but she couldn't see anything outside her well-lit circle through them, so she put them on without pulling the lenses over her eyes. She dismissed the councillor's concerned look without realising he wanted something else and didn't really care for her eyesight.

"Please, don't open the box until I get to safety."

Apart from the initial conditions, she had the right to dismiss every order she received for the duration of the test. She surmised that waiting for the old man to limp to the monitoring station would give her a few moments to get acquainted with the safety box Item 95X was deposited in.

Tanya's curt nod had the councillor smiling. "God bless you, child," he said as he turned to leave.

His words gave Tanya's imagination wings. She chuckled lightly, approaching the safety box. The beautiful material it was made of acted like a cage, protecting the world from the beast sealed inside. It had a tantalising feel that went through the thin ceremonial gloves Tanya was wearing. The beast wanted out. That was when Tanya recalled she hadn't worn such gloves to one type of special occasion–a funeral. Professor Schugel was a gracious host to offer her the unique experience.

 _No, councillor. God is dead, and so are you_.

Professor Schugel clicked his ocular to check on the situation and hastily grabbed the microphone when he realised what was going on, "Safety crew, level three."

Tanya heard the meaty sound of the councillor's face smacking into a magic barrier. He should have thought twice before asking her to wait for him to get to safety. There was no safety as long as Existence X continued to stalk humanity. She'd have had to be insane to obey that order!

The brilliant flash Tanya perceived through closed eyelids exceeded all expectations. Item 95X had been emitting an extrasensory signal the entire time and its presence completely overwhelmed her when she opened the box. The lining was cast led encased in a magic-resistant alloy. It effectively prevented the operation orb's influence from spreading into the environment by sealing it inside. As a result, Item 95X was stewing in its own magic juice for so long that it turned the box into a type of pressure cooker.

Released from containment, Item 95X fogged up Tanya's senses as well as her affinity for magic. The scientists by the monitoring station may have only seen the flash since they were huddled behind three magic barriers, yet the operation orb's extrasensory presence shorted out some of their equipment.

Tanya's consciousness could relate to that. The goggles would have been of great help if her arms could tell up from down. Explosions disoriented her less than this. Worst of all, she didn't get the pain feedback that normally activated the body's defences.

Her options were to either wait for the sensory scrambling effect to wear out or go against her sound judgement and rein in the operation orb. The representative from the Inspector General's Office was observing her performance and she'd be a fool not to perform to impress.

Tanya guided her hand towards the operation orb's intensity without sight or touch to tell her if she was on target.

She grabbed it. The feedback was immediate and intense. What first felt like weightlessness suspended in sensory goo became a very solid, physical shock. Tanya gasped from the weight of her body, her eyes darting around frantically as she experienced the energy the operation orb had released sync up with her. The operation orb activated faster than Tanya's brain realised that she should do something about it.

Time dilation seemed to kick in. At this point, Tanya was aware that the operation orb was playing tricks on her and what she saw was not necessarily real. Her focus had to be on maintaining outward professionalism, which there was little of in a gasping ten-year-old girl with mad eyes.

It was hard to breathe. Tanya didn't have the strength to move her legs to make the few steps that separated her from the landing mat, supposed to function as her station during this test. She desperately needed good news to regain control of her physical responses.

Tanya struggled to amass the mental resources to resist the operation orb's effect. Her grip on logic was slipping, giving way to panic and dread of what her state could snowball into. The hatred she had for Professor Schugel blossomed into a sinister passion as the operation orb seemed to crush her with her own weight.

Professor Schugel was right to require extreme safety measures. In this state, she couldn't be sure if she was standing still or slaughtering everyone in a blind rage. Item 95X charged her imagination with untold colour, giving her images of the countless ways she could dispose of her spectators. At the same time, it juxtaposed the carnage against crisp visuals of her standing idly next to the landing mat.

She didn't give the operation orb the explicit order to process that information. An operation orb couldn't have processed that information even if she had given the order. Item 95A enabled seamless transitions between spells, but it couldn't multi-task. The best it could do was a series of spells.

That was when her irises regained focus and she blinked. Tanya had taken the wrong approach to this operation orb. Her apparent paralysis was the consequence of gross miscommunication. All she had to do was stop forcing the proverbial square peg in the round hole and let her mana flow as it saw fit.

Tanya tingled with excitement at the revelation. _Four cores in one operation orb. How is that possible?_

Once Tanya allowed her mana to course freely throughout the operation orb, she attempted to use it to manipulate the cores and regain full control of her body.

Item 95X responded with immense heat, much like its predecessor Item 95A. Tanya visualised the damage four cores going into meltdown could do and nearly screamed in her head when she realised the operation orb had taken her fear for a command. It was nuts. How was she supposed to work with a device that acted on barely conscious musings?

Just as she thought of that question, she felt the operation orb react by adding weight to her exhaustion. There was a pattern, an id-driven subconscious pattern.

Tanya had to admit that it was a feat to create an operation orb this sensitive to the user, but she had to maintain absurd precision to keep it from going haywire. The operation orb continued to wreak havoc on her mind and body as she got more acquainted with its properties.

Her knees were shaking and the uneven breathing was another concrete sign of exhaustion. The operation orb didn't give her any hallucinations after she had picked it up; it merely sucked more mana out of Tanya than she ever held at the ready.

Item 95X was insatiable and Tanya was yet to figure out a way to reduce its appetite for mana. She acknowledged that four cores ran on a multiple of the mana a standard orb required. The need to constantly displace her mana reserves to have the operation orb dispose of them without doing anything useful, though, irritated her.

The indignation seemed to help because the operation orb cooled down. Tanya hadn't pinpointed the trigger, but she suspected it had to do with her background desire to stop the operation orb from trying to burn through her hand. The operation orb's surreal reaction was overshadowed by that of Tanya's audience.

Everyone stood in breathless silence, unsure whether this was the beginning of the end or a breakthrough. Professor Schugel glanced at his watch to note the time.

For once, Tanya could relate to the crowd. She had no idea what the operation orb was capable of in her hands, but there was one way to find out: she attached it to the operation orb holder below the collar and concentrated.

Working with individual cores would have required constant mind fragmentation. Tanya wanted to avoid that outcome, considering that she'd need four different fragments to perform the same task. If she were to dedicate the logical component of her personality to the task, it could fail after being broken in four and she'd need another piece of it in the background to keep her impulses in check. The damage this would cause to her psyche was likely to prompt Professor Schugel to use his ultimate failsafe and blow her up.

There had to be a better, more intuitive way. As if aware of her quandary, the operation orb guided her attention to the clockwork mechanism that distributed the mana between the cores. The machine synchronicity it achieved reminded Tanya of modern computers from her previous life. As long as she supplied the right amount of mana at the right time, the mechanism would do its job. She still needed to pay close attention to the mess of thoughts and emotions swirling in her head because the operation orb flared up like a fireball the instance her concentration lapsed.

To her dismay, Tanya realised that she didn't have the skill to prevent the operation orb from draining her mana and the angular momentum trick that helped her with Item 95A didn't work due to the multiplied pull of the four cores.

Item 95X was beginning to have an adverse reaction to her thoughts, which led Tanya to a regrettable conclusion: Professor Schugel told her the answer when they first met.

 _Focus on the matter at hand._

Her blooming hatred for Professor Schugel bore fruit as she scattered her thoughts and reservations to dedicate her undivided attention to the clockwork inside the operation orb. If it failed, she would die in a spectacular explosion, but she didn't care. She didn't have the strength to care.

Invariably, her mind cracked in two. Her feet made their way to the landing mat, her hands pulled the protective goggles over her eyes and her face fooled those watching into thinking that she was in full control of her actions.

The information trickled into her senses, but her mind wouldn't acknowledge it. The world could have dissolved into formless white, or maybe it was just the effect of the flood lights all around her, she didn't care. The fissure in her consciousness was unintended, so she couldn't tell which parts of her were capable of interacting with the environment and which were preoccupied with running the orb. She didn't ask the question; she would only answer the order and her order was to fly.

Professor Schugel's voice disturbed her in the distance. "Second Lieutenant, what is your initial assessment of Item 95X?"

Tanya giggled. Her hands quivered as she spoke in a childish voice that seemed natural to a ten-year-old girl, not the stern bearer of the Silver Wings Assault Medal, "The four cores hit like a truck."

She was unaware that she giggled non-stop after addressing him. Tanya didn't register the worried looks she got from the scientists and especially the guards aiming at her. Even if she knew what was going on, either the flood lights or her dark goggles would have prevented her from seeing their reaction.

Professor Schugel hesitated. His microphone was on the entire time, so Tanya could hear him via her headset. More precisely, her body reacted to the sound, but the person inside was in no condition to make sense of it.

The sight of a small giggling girl wearing an explosive collar and an insanity-inducing operation orb was unusual even for Professor Schugel, but he ultimately conceded that it was up to the anomaly in front of him to validate his research.

"Proceed with the flight test."

She stuffed the operation orb to the brim with mana upon hearing the order. She would have fed it more if she could scoop it up quickly enough. Tanya didn't know what was going on, but there was chatter on the radio. Item 95X emitted a vibration she hadn't encountered before. The vibration's frequency was so high it pierced through everything in its path, barely stopping for steel or concrete.

Aerial Mages were told to have a sixth sense for mana. Item 95X covered everything else on the sensory spectrum. She didn't need eyes or ears as long as the operation orb gave her something superior to flesh. It even let her peer into her own body, highlighting the internal damage left from the previous test.

"… Target elevation achieved. Counting down."

The operation orb caught movement down on the ground. The representative from the Inspector General's Office departed without giving Tanya a chance to talk to him. The soldiers lowered their bayonets, yet tension continued to linger while Tanya levitated in fixed position exactly six feet above the ground. The vibrations coming from Item 95X made it very easy to determine her distance to everything in the hangar, and even parts of the environment outside.

"… Countdown complete."

They didn't applaud her this time. All eyes were on Professor Schugel, who checked the still-functioning equipment to make sure he had the necessary data. His assistant was sent away with machine printouts as a precaution, should the electronic records fail.

In the end, Professor Schugel returned to the microphone. He was shining with glee as he spoke, "Second Lieutenant, why are you not gloating yet?"

He didn't realise his mistake until the ten-year-old girl he was speaking to disappeared from view and the unopened explosive collar rolled on the concrete floor towards him.

 _Fufufu_.


	13. Trapped

The beast was free. Professor Schugel's contingency plans have failed and now he had to deal with a hyperactive child who had the power to level the testing facility.

Armed guards were waiting for his command to fire, but it didn't come. Even if they shot at Tanya, the magic shield projected by her operation orb would have blocked any bullets. The scientists on Professor Schugel's team were horrified that Tanya managed to remove her magic-resistant collar. She didn't have the key to open it, so she must have used magic, which did not make sense. It was resistant to magic!

Professor Schugel adjusted his eyepiece and folded his arms in wait, glancing at his watch every once in a while.

Tanya would have described her state as a combination of childish frisk and being drunk with power. The part of her fragmented mind that reached this conclusion, though, had no means of communicating it to her consciousness. The ten-year-old girl her body represented had taken over and she was having a blast with the amazing quad-core operation orb.

She could see everything, feel everyone's distressed heartbeats; the sensation amused her on end. They were paying attention to her, the star of the stage, and they deserved to see the best she could do. Operating Item 95X in this state was as easy as sleeping. Tanya could zip across the hangar in a blink and raise the heavy flood lights to their fixtures below the ceiling without breaking a sweat. While her spectators marvelled at the haunting manifestation of her magic, they reacted too slowly to spot her.

The monitoring equipment confirmed her presence inside the hangar as did the cautious stances of the three safety crew Mages. The councillor lay bleeding on the floor, yet Professor Schugel didn't give the order to raise the barriers to let the medical team through. For all they knew, the safety crew Mages stood between them and the unknown on the other side.

Having effectively disabled her logical side, Tanya relinquished any conscious inhibitions for the sake of survival. Reason thrashed in its mental cage, pleading the surfaced inner child to sink back to the depths of her being. This was a trap set up by Professor Schugel. She would endure unspeakable punishment for making a mockery of his safeguards while flaunting her invincibility.

Adding insult to injury, Tanya saw to it that the far-most Mage collapsed to the floor. This rid the scientists of the thickest barrier protecting them. Professor Schugel frowned.

The second Mage, whose thin barrier was supposed to cover the entirety of the air surface to prevent Tanya from flying too close to the monitoring equipment, took a step back, confused. His barrier was broken and he struggled to raise it again. The voluminous magic interference Tanya generated prevented the spell from coming to fruition. His mana dispersed as soon as it left his standard Mk 13 operation orb. To fix this, he would have had to fire up more mana using one core than Tanya could with four.

Down to the third Mage, Tanya was curious about finding a way to pop his barrier and secure her improvised victory over the scientists. The problem was that she couldn't direct her mana to puncture it; the barrier moved, changing shape and scope of its blocking effect to let out any agitated mana with Tanya's magic signature.

Tanya would have easily figured it out if her consciousness was there to think, but her inner child had a better idea: she reached out for all of her remaining mana with the intent of throwing it out in one huge blast that would silence every other magic. She flew to the central area, the lights above illuminating her from every direction. To the spectators, she was no less than a demon in angel's clothing.

"… Mana saturation warning."

The monitoring equipment produced alarming readings. The scientists stopped taking notes. If Tanya's mana manifested in its entirety in the physical world, the hangar and everyone in it would be destroyed.

"We must evacuate."

Professor Schugel checked his watch. Tanya slowed down significantly without noticing it since she started using the operation orb. Exhaustion was showing on her ecstatic face. Now that she had to stop flying around to focus whatever mana she had left, Professor Schugel ordered the third Mage to lower his barrier, ridding the scientists of their last safety measure.

When the remaining foreign mana left her sensory field, Tanya was at a loss. Her smile faltered and she was about to use the accumulated mana in a temper tantrum when she started choking. In her limited mental state, she didn't know how to conjure a restorative spell. She was losing control of the mana and her actions.

This was no fun. Tanya feared for what was about to happen as logic trickled back into action. She put together the thought fragments she had gathered and felt that she was about to return to her immobile stupor. It was coming down hard and fast, so Tanya expunged the agitated mana she had injected into Item 95X and hurried to put the operation orb back in storage. The fit of panic that had her going that moment evaporated and she realised she was her old self again.

The realisation hit harder than a truck. Tanya collapsed near the landing mat, gasping for air. Other than the flood lights shining like distant stars through her protective goggles, she couldn't see anything. She wanted to fully comprehend what happened during the test, but her consciousness slipped as quickly as it had resurfaced. Tanya fainted.

"Medic!" yelled Professor Schugel.

The ambulance stationed outside the hangar drove up to Tanya. Before the paramedics got to load her limp body into the vehicle, Professor Schugel gave her a parting word to dwell on, "It appears, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff, your mana pool capacity is quite measurable. Don't expect a trip to the infirmary to let you weasel out of your afternoon study session."

* * *

The clock in the emergency room read 2PM. Professor Schugel's circular pacing meant they were behind schedule. He called it "sleeping on the job", but blamed the medics rather than Tanya. Apparently, they had refused to use a steroid injection to put her back on her feet.

Tanya didn't want to open her eyes sooner than absolutely necessary. Dealing with distant echoes on the edge of her consciousness was more pleasant than enduring another lecture from the prickly scientist.

He must have seen her stir awake because he was at her bedside the moment she faced the bright, cruel world again. The bed behind Professor Schugel was also occupied. She saw a man with a bandaged head lying still, probably unconscious. Other than him, they were alone.

"Professor Schugel…" she began. It hurt to move and the intravenous drip attached to her arm spoke for the severity of her condition.

"How are you?"

"Alive."

"Excellent. What is your report?"

Tanya shouldn't have expected sympathy from Professor Schugel. She let herself go during the test and he was likely to push her even harder now. He made it painfully clear that as long as she was even marginally alive, he would continue to exploit her for so-called science.

Her memory of the incident was foggy and Tanya tried to piece the events together to fulfil the command, but words failed her.

Professor Schugel didn't like her tardiness. "If you are too weak to perform your duties, feel free to say so. This will be valuable information for _my_ assessment."

The threat caught her off guard, so she said the first thing that came to mind, "It was exhilarating, Professor Schugel."

"I'm afraid science can't relate to your exhilaration, Second Lieutenant. Elaborate."

She had to be careful. Professor Schugel was taking notes and would catch her lying if she made something up. A good lie required preparation and Professor Schugel did everything to make sure she had none.

"I felt…limited, yet free to conduct any magic I wanted, with any amount of mana I had. Controlling it proved to be difficult."

Tanya suppressed smiling at the recollection. What she did during the test was amazing. The speed, the power–it was addicting. Had she not burnt through her mana reserves, she wouldn't be having this conversation because Professor Schugel would have been blown to bits. If she could learn to control Item 95X while fully conscious, she would be unstoppable.

"How did you deal with the difficulty?"

The question thrust her minute daydream back to earth. She was embarrassed by what she had to do to complete the test.

"Mind fragmentation, sir."

"Which fragments did you have to discard to use Item 95X?"

 _Curses! He knows how it works_. Tanya averted her eyes as she scrambled to make up a believable answer.

"I don't remember," she lied. She opted to call it brain damage if he pressed her for details.

"We don't have the time for memory loss treatment, Second Lieutenant."

This was the reason why Professor Schugel must have chased the medics out. He was free to pressure and interrogate her without any respite. Tanya losing the ability to speak could have slowed him down, but it was too late to use that as an excuse. Even then he would have found a way to make her divulge information. Ideally, she'd have to be temporarily deaf, blind and paralysed in the limbs to avoid communicating with him. Brain damage wouldn't have stopped him.

"This fragmentation was unintentional," she admitted. "I normally separate logic from emotions, but Item 95X didn't respond as intended to logical commands, so-"

"You discarded logic and let your emotions control you?"

The unexpected interruption concerned her, and he was asking for a clarification, not making a statement. Professor Schugel cornered her in front of a very uncomfortable truth.

"No. I discarded both."

She thought she did because the impulses she had fallen victim to were not natural to her consciousness. Then again, she hadn't turned into a mindless beast, so it couldn't have been a clean fragmentation. A trace amount of her, a suppressed inner child or its ilk, remained on the surface, and that amount was enough to control the operation orb. The child's care-free mind was all it needed.

Now that she thought about it, her transfer to this project made perfect sense, albeit in a twisted way. The complicated and inflexible adult mind in a child's body was a limitation for the operation orb rather than a perk. Professor Schugel's prolonged silence hinted that he could have already reached that conclusion on his own.

"Second Lieutenant, would it be accurate to note that you were essentially sleepwalking during the test?"


	14. Murphy's Law

"Yes," said Tanya through gritted teeth.

Professor Schugel put the pen down. He was done. If his stare was any indication, so was Tanya's career. The neutral tone he addressed her with reminded her of a page from the corporate firing playbook she used in her previous life.

"Thank you for your honesty. I know it takes courage for a soldier to make such an admission, so you can rest assured that you will not be reprimanded for any harm, unintentional or otherwise, you have done while testing Item 95X. It would be odd to incriminate an unconscious person."

As he spoke, he briefly glanced at the other bed, occupied by someone whose head was wrapped in bandages. Tanya did not recognise the person, but she had an inkling that she should have.

Professor Schugel stood up, turning his attention back to Tanya. "A shuttle is waiting for you outside. Medical staff will escort you. I expect your celebrated motivation to return after lunch."

Tanya gawked blankly at the ceiling when he left. This was a lot to take in and she couldn't decide which part she wanted to fume about first. He had no right to fault her for anything that occurred while she was under the influence of the insanity-inducing operation orb. Besides, Tanya didn't recall hurting anyone other than the councillor, and he had it coming for raising the topic of Existence X. Tanya found it inconceivable that a scientist would have turned to religion at a decisive moment. That was unscientific and a huge oversight on Professor Schugel's part.

Considering that Professor Schugel dropped the case and didn't reprimand her, the incident left her morally indebted to him, if only in his point of view. There was no point in disputing the debt; her protests would fall on deaf ears.

Leniency came at a price that he was quick to name, so there was a silver lining: she'd just have to carry on as if nothing had happened. It was easier said than done in her battered physical state, but the last thing Tanya wanted at this point was to owe Professor Schugel a favour.

Medical staff knew their part well. After a standard check-up, Tanya was discharged as healthy even though the dripping catheter they removed from her arm proved otherwise. The testing facility relied on medics who worked with soldiers, not civilians. Compared to the plight of a fresh front-line amputee, Tanya's condition was a minor grievance that did not deserve any compassion.

Tanya received the custom fireproof uniform she was promised and an assortment of pills to take away. She rejected the second offer, as taking the ineffectual painkillers or sedatives would have been an admission of weakness. The medics did discharge her as healthy.

The fancy white gloves Tanya managed to save were a nice addition to her attire. Her medal was missing, but she had an idea of where it could be. The Silver Wings Assault Medal was a precious rarity by Imperial standards, and Murpy's Law dictated that such a McGuffin would be naturally attracted to the most dangerous of places. Given the testing facility's layout and danger levels, it would have to be in Professor Schugel's office.

Fortunately for Tanya, she was supposed to get there after lunch. Unfortunately for Tanya, only lunch separated her from a whole afternoon of studying with Professor Schugel. Just another deceptively simple assignment on her first day as testing personnel. As with all the previous ones, this task was bound to have strings attached and, in lieu of its relative safety together with it being the last item on her itinerary, it was the real-life equivalent of a boss battle.

A loud honk caught her attention once she got outside. It was the same corporal she had encountered on her way to the hangar. He flashed an awkward smile at Tanya as he welcomed her to his vehicle.

"Klusross Taxi, because you're behind schedule."

"I liked the first greeting more, corporal."

Despite her verbal protest, she got seated without delay. It was a relief to know she wouldn't have to walk all the way to the mess hall. Exhaustion and physical anguish affected one's priorities in unseemly ways.

"Engineering Director's orders, ma'am. It was either this or a wheelchair," the corporal said as he started the motor.

The testing facility seemed to be catching up with its other experiments since the weather improved. The vehicle still splashed through the occasional puddle gleaming in the afternoon sun, but the amount of commotion and noise indicated work went full speed ahead. Planes danced in the sky, engines roared in a nearby warehouse and groups of scientists accompanied various military projects, large and small, out in the open. It gave Tanya a better idea of the testing facility's scope as well as the enormity of Professor Schugel's responsibilities as its manager. Tanya wondered about the special treatment of the operation orb project and its meaning to the Imperial war effort in the context of other technological pursuits. Professor Schugel had cast his vote for magic over conventional warfare.

A pothole on the edge of the crater that was paved over last night jolted her out of thought. The corporal hadn't noticed her space out and continued, "Your colleague…err, former colleague didn't get to pick. You must be very strong if they didn't break you!"

Tanya had forgotten about the crater and the noisy construction that took place last night. She suspected casualties were involved in its creation and the corporal confirmed it: the previous Aerial Mage charged with testing Professor Schugel's operation orbs died here. Tanya's predecessor had gotten to the outdoors testing stage, which meant that she remained on the beaten path and more dangerous tests were in store for her. Professor Schugel was unlikely to give her props until she managed to outlive her predecessors.

The corporal had fallen silent, probably expecting a reply, and Tanya didn't want to disappoint. She also wanted to squeeze more information out of him. It wasn't a common occurrence that she got a source both vulnerable and experienced.

"How long have you been stationed here, corporal?"

"Five months. One more and I'll be eligible for test pilot training!"

A month was a long time to think about one's prospects. If he was going to fly an experimental pulsejet like the one she had seen explode in the morning, she had to do everything she could to exploit the corporal before the testing facility took its turn.

Tanya got off once the vehicle stopped by the mess hall entrance. She thanked him for the service and approached him for a whisper the guards wouldn't hear, "A word of advice: don't break after you bend."

She had concluded that the corporal was too young to be aware of the consequences of his patriotism, so a subtle reminder that he could end up as filler for another death notification envelope was bound to help him put things into perspective. Tanya didn't like the idiom because it underestimated one's ability to affect other people. The future, it said, belonged to the weak while the present ground the strong to dust. For one to be both weak and broken was a tragedy, in Tanya's view.

Hence, Tanya hinged her cooperation with Professor Schugel on military professionalism. The contract made her a subordinate, but her subordination to the Empire took precedence over anything the testing facility would have her do. Tanya would not hesitate to hold Professor Schugel accountable for any heinous crimes he would have committed in her presence. She also refused to bend to Existence X and stayed true to her beliefs while serving the Empire. If war didn't break her, Professor Schugel would have to throw something inconceivably evil to do her in.

She had to remain vigilant in the face of temptations concocted by her enemies and, judging by today's lunch menu, her enemies were powerful and the temptations–great. The kitchen staff have outdone themselves yet again. Tanya pressed her cheeks together in excitement, marvelling at the party about to start in her mouth.

The minute display of immature lack of self-control proved that she had a lot to learn. Even if none of the scientists in the dining hall saw her reaction, the kitchen staff could report it to Professor Schugel, who'd be sure to record it as a case of "emotional instability". While factual, this isolated incident would contribute to Professor Schugel's unfair evaluation of her character. Scientists were not immune to bias.

Paranoiac thoughts and the promise of imminent fulfilment distracted her from the weight of her food tray as she carried it to a free table. No matter how tired, one always had hidden energy reserves to splurge on the final stretch.

Tanya eyed the culinary mastery about to become a part of her. Meaty, savoury, hot and fragrant–just the thing for a little girl's metabolism to convert into ultimate reality-warping power. Proper course order didn't matter. She would have it all, from the cherry peaks of the thick chocolatey slice of black forest cake to the calorie volcano that was eisbein, a golden-crusted ham hock sat on a bed of fluffy mashed potatoes in the middle of a gravy lake. The stew, sides and drinks were okay, too, but a soldier had to prioritise her targets.

After extinguishing the volcano with cabbage stew and conquering the mountains of sweetness, Tanya gazed at the desolation she left behind. It was a perfect strategic victory. The only side effect was the drowsy feeling that came with satisfaction. They didn't serve coffee for some reason and the herbal tea fell short of her expectations.

Not that she risked falling asleep in the middle of the study session. Professor Schugel had a distinctive air of tension about him that made it impossible to relax in his company. Trying to do so resulted in disaster.

Which was why she did not humour the corporal giving her a lift to Professor Schugel's office located in the site's administrative building. The advice she had given him must have touched a nerve, too, as he reduced the idle chatter to a professional minimum.

Tanya preferred to get this part over with as quickly as possible and arriving fifteen minutes early was a part of her plan. Professor Schugel was bound to appreciate her decision, seeing that Tanya sacrificed leisure time for work. He seemed the type to baulk at the idea of a healthy balance between the two.

The Spartan two-storey administrative building stood near the entrance to the air base. From his vantage point upstairs, Professor Schugel had a clear view of everyone who passed the heavily guarded gate.

A burly soldier stationed in front of the building offered to guide Tanya inside after checking her ID badge. Albeit her petite stature encouraged kindness, there was nothing kind about this man. The offer was an order she had no say in, knowing that he could snap her neck like a chicken's. One wouldn't want to meet such a person in a dark alley.

 _Good thing he's on our side._

Getting to Professor Schugel's office meant checking in with a clerk on each floor and his assistant in the ante-room. The scientist's fixation with security would have been commendable if it weren't for his madness skewing it to extremes.

The bronze plaque at the entrance to his office read: "Acting Facility Manager, Engineering Director Prof. Dr.-Ing. Adelaide von Schugel". It was there that the Spartan accommodations ended and intricate hell began.

Professor Schugel sat behind a mahogany table. His irises darted behind a pair of reading glasses as he ploughed through an imposing stack of paperwork, pen in hand. Without raising his eyes, he motioned for Tanya to take a seat in front of the table and for the assistant to close the door.

Energetic scribbles mixed with the sound of an old grandfather clock, accompanied by clicks of a typing machine hard at work in the ante-room. The situation reminded Tanya of being sent to the principal's office for misbehaviour at school, but she didn't let it intimidate her. She was here on official business.

Tanya bided her time looking around. Professor Schugel's office had two doors. Other than the entrance, there was a reinforced side door with yellow-and-black warning labels. It was likely a small laboratory of sorts. A small worn table stood near that door. Professor Schugel had placed Tanya's medal on it, along with various other items, including the explosive collar, an operation orb floating in a glass container and a nutcracker figurine. Just like Tanya expected, his office was a natural McGuffin attractor.

The wall closest to her was lined with locked shadow boxes containing documents Professor Schugel wanted to showcase. Rather than awards or certificates of qualification, Professor Schugel put up two types of publications: reports from the front detailing experimental equipment usage and enemy propaganda that touted technological superiority over the Empire. In essence, this was his wall of motivation.

"Second Lieutenant, you are early. How are you?" Professor Schugel asked. He spoke more deliberately than usual. Tanya assumed it had to do with him being focused on the paperwork.

"Alive, sir."

He pushed a document folder aside, glanced at Tanya from under his glasses and opened the next batch. "The medical team discharged you as healthy, but there seems to be a problem. Is their report valid?"

Tanya identified the trick question, but she didn't have an effective riposte at the ready. Asking for clarification or stalling would have irritated him. She must have missed something and now had little recourse except let Professor Schugel bring out the poison.

"Yes, sir."

"I advised you that I expected to see motivation. If your early arrival is not an obvious sign of motivation, it makes poor testimony about your time management skills or attention span. Which one is it?" He looked her straight in the eyes. Since she hesitated to respond, he removed the glasses and folded his arms. The conversation wouldn't move on without her.

This was a disaster. An avoidable one at that. Tanya had assumed that she nailed down the winning formula when he made it clear he needed her alive. She failed to recognise the new insidiously-versed expectation for her to be both alive and motivated. Professor Schugel had raised the bar and Tanya had ignored his clue as small talk. She should have known that madmen didn't do small talk.

"Attention span, sir."

She picked the lesser of the two evils. The brain damage excuse she had invented would have gone swimmingly with that one.

"It's good that you're early, then. You will need the extra time to cover the remedial material I've prepared."

Professor Schugel was about to put his glasses back on when the loud ding of the typing machine came from the ante-room. The assistant returned, holding a piece of paper. Whatever it was, the text had to be important enough to warrant the intrusion.

Tanya pretended not to be interested in what was written on the page, but the more she discerned, the more curiosity sparkled in her eyes. It was a War College recommendation letter with Tanya's name on it, a titillating prize only a fool would refuse. Unsigned and undated, it replaced a document in one of the shadow boxes on the wall, the only difference being the name of the recipient. If this was Professor Schugel's way of teasing her with unlimited career prospects and the leisure of college life, it certainly put his awful demeanour and testing practices into perspective. The great risks Tanya bore at the testing facility brought equally great rewards.

If she were to fail, though, she would end up in the bin like the torn pieces of the recommendation letter dedicated to her predecessor. Professor Schugel made his point clear without breathing a word: she was a replaceable part in a well-oiled military machine.

"Second Lieutenant, would you join me for a cup of coffee while we prepare?" Professor Schugel asked. His assistant went through the door with the warning labels upon hearing the question.

Suspecting another diversion, Tanya's mind went back to her admission of having a short attention span. Caffeine would have exacerbated the issue ahead of a study session, so it was wise to ignore the unusual display of kindness. He dangled a carrot in front of her with the recommendation letter. The stick was coming next.

"No, thank you, sir."

"There's no need to be this humble, Second Lieutenant. I insist."

The right side of Professor Schugel's face was smiling while the left side remained deadpan serious. He was clearly suppressing joy and Tanya couldn't fathom the reason until she saw the assistant return with a tea set. It was the same tea set Tanya tampered with before her second test. Professor Schugel had uncovered her ruse.

Disaster was unavoidable, after all.


	15. Boss Battle

"Ingenuity and adaptability are admirable traits for a soldier to have, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff."

Professor Schugel implied that Tanya possessed neither, she was sure of it. Having tricked him during the break between tests, she used magic to erase any evidence of her tampering with the teacups, but she had forgotten about the teapot. Now that it was filled to the brim with hot coffee, the unmistakeable foul smell of kerosene rose to her nostrils.

His assistant had brought the tea set from the laboratory, too, so he must have analysed it thoroughly. A scientist was bound to do that when faced with the possibility of their judgement being wrong. Professor Schugel hated being wrong and it shouldn't have surprised him that he would go to maddening lengths to get back at her. This was a foolish oversight on her part. With their roles switched, Tanya would have chastised her subordinate for botching the job. Dishonesty never paid off if one was caught.

The silent half-smile staring at her while he poured coffee into his teacup unnerved her, but she couldn't have prepared for the finished. A superior officer would have scolded her for the childish shenanigans and carried on; the military had more important things to care about. By refusing to call her out directly, Professor Schugel let her stew in shame.

She was not ashamed of trying to trick Professor Schugel. It was the fact that other people saw her fail that got to her. And those people were okay with pouring fine coffee into a teapot tainted with kerosene.

"Rejoice! You have demonstrated both."

Tanya tilted her head to the side. Professor Schugel didn't do sarcasm, but she had learnt that woe would befall her if a superior officer told her to be happy.

"That is why you are here right now. 'Alive,' in your own words."

A compliment followed by criticism magnified the latter's effect. It showed how high the bar was raised since she has proven herself difficult to kill. Tanya had been ordered to get to Professor Schugel's office to study in preparation for more dangerous equipment tests. In his view, she had to act cheery about the whole ordeal, but she didn't. For a natural demotivator like Professor Schugel to demand motivation from his subordinates was a testament to his cruelty, insanity or both.

Tanya's fault lay in mistaking his earlier order for a casual remark. She realised Professor Schugel could have held her refusal to rejoice upon being told to do so as another slight. The idea that she had to take his words literally was still alien to her. After one stripped Professor Schugel's words of context, he became easier to follow than the average commanding officer. Though, his uncanny ability to strike one down without trying continued to perplex Tanya. He was tough to crack, a despicable trait they had in common.

"How do you like your coffee?"

Her head tilted back, but the expression crooked in disgust. "Served in a coffee cup."

"Attention to detail is a bare necessity of science, along with consistency. Why would you say this is the case?"

Tanya wanted to redact her previous thought about the situation reminding her of a visit to the principal's office. He was interrogating her using clerical methods: mounting psychological pressure to confess her sins while corralling her mind with loaded questions. Tanya had to agree with the rationale behind his statement even though her experience with Existence X cast doubt on Professor Schugel's intent. That aside, his scientific pedigree came before the dormant insanity. As long as she played along while avoiding his nastier side, she would emerge unscathed. Tanya theorised that he asked the question to indirectly mock her for forgetting to manipulate the teapot, yet this interpretation left out his deliberate mention of consistency. She needed another clue to figure it out.

"Science functions as a vehicle of truth, which is elusive," she said. Scientists formulated hypotheses that were either rejected or not rejected. The notion of having a critical mind meant that new developments could render an old theory obsolete. Even if progress didn't outright invalidate one's hypothesis, it could expose limitations through increased precision. Scientists coped with the knowledge that success was the temporary state of not having one's statements debunked. Evolution of science was an unending sequence, much like the number pi.

"Religion would take umbrage at both statements."

Tanya clenched her fists out of sight. He had to be provoking her on purpose. Whatever the reason, she needed to keep her cool.

"It has no respect for the scientific method."

"Do you?"

There it was, the trap. She couldn't answer positively after trying to trick him, as it would have made her inconsistent, the worst kind of person for a scientist to deal with. One could trust a truthful person to always tell the truth and a dishonest person to be dishonest, but those who spoke both lies and truths could not be trusted. While it looked like she would have to give a negative reply and let him berate her as a disrespectful meathead, she opted to stall for time.

"Sir?"

He seemed to ignore the request for clarification by lifting his teacup filled with coffee and smelling it. Tanya raged inside at the possibility of him having used a rhetorical question. That would have made Professor Schugel inconsistent, the worst kind of person in science. It also would have allowed her to label him a hypocrite, which she had been meaning to do for a while, but didn't because his insanity kept misleading her.

"Curious…coffee poured from a teapot has the disappointing smell of kerosene. Why do you think that is?"

Professor Schugel's insinuations were getting dangerous. Tanya refused to throw context out the window and dismiss the comment about things being out-of-place. Scientists hated such anomalies and Tanya knew she was one, a little girl in the military.

She decided to come clean to reduce the tension.

"Ingenuity and adaptability are admirable traits for a soldier to have, sir."

"Best combine them with the bare necessities, unless you're fine with poisoning your commanding officer."

It was a relief. She didn't have to admit that she had tricked him and he didn't have to call her out on it. This was a victory in an administrative sense: the incident would remain off the record and wouldn't compromise Tanya's career prospects.

As always with these tacit agreements, there was a price to pay. Professor Schugel motioned at the operation orb floating in a glass container next to her medal on the other table. Tanya pushed her chair back and was about to stand up when she got a disapproving stare. He had intended for her to use magic to obtain the operation orb and dispose of the kerosene pollutant from the cup like the first time. The difference was that she had to repeat the trick on his watch.

The interrogation must have been going smoothly in Professor Schugel's point of view: Tanya agreed to re-enact her transgression and she accepted another personal challenge in the process.

She took it in with a hint of whimsy, finding it appropriate to show off by levitating the contained orb and the medal to Professor Schugel's desk. Having scanned his reaction for any objections, she pocketed the medal and started working on the operation orb. Professor Schugel had ordered her to remove the medal due to the risk of it disrupting sensitive equipment tests, but he did not show any concern now. Tanya appreciated the vote of confidence.

The operation orb presented to her seemed familiar. It had four cores and an environmental effect akin to Item 95X. Tanya surmised that it continuously attracted mana to keep itself afloat in what she dubbed "presentation mode". Onlookers would have been impressed by an operation orb so efficient that it could use residual mana as fuel. The visuals couldn't fool Tanya, though: the innate sensitivity of such a device made it a double-edged sword. Given Professor Schugel's record, the weapons he developed would harm the user more often than the intended target.

A manual would have been handy. She hadn't read the full multi-line title of the study session as written on her itinerary, but it had something to do with the technical specifications of operation orbs manufactured at the Elinium Factory. Professor Schugel meant it when he listed a soldier's admirable traits. They increased one's chances of survival and those with an aptitude for coming out of an engagement alive earned the military's admiration. The proof was in Tanya's pocket.

What she had to go through to receive the medal, though, was something she didn't want to relive. Professor Schugel's method guaranteed she'd earn her merits with more blood and sweat. Handing her a new operation orb for an impromptu challenge–an equipment test in all but name–was the latest in a series of troubling signs he'd advance until he appeared in front of Existence X as a pending corpse, if not worse.

Tanya didn't want to hold a grudge against him; that was unproductive. She hated the maniacal tendencies that blinded him to the risks he was forcing others to take. His unhealthy obsession with science made him little different from the religious fanatics. Given enough time, she'd gather the evidence to unseat him or at least free herself from his command.

As she gazed into the chaotic innards of the operation orb twirling in front of her, she realised that she might not live to complain. The prospect of dying next to a fanatic didn't appeal to her. He of all people deserved to die. What did she do to get to share his fate?

 _Right_. _That._

Tanya's only consolation was that Professor Schugel didn't act on direct orders from Existence X. He was just a useful idiot. If she were Existence X, she'd have recruited him without a second thought. A weaker person subordinated to Professor Schugel would have broken down under the inhuman load and erupted in delirious prayer moments before getting annihilated. There was no sadder fate than succumbing to the devil's influence at the very end. It proved the futility of one's lifelong struggle and emboldened that fiend.

Until science discovered a recipe for immortality, she would have to settle for the next best thing she had: facing death head on and saying, "Not today."

In a move that reflected Professor Schugel's sentiment, Tanya reached out for the operation orb and attached it to the holder under her collar. She felt the difference immediately after taking it out of the glass container. It switched from running on ambience to her magic signature. The first impression was akin to being hit on the head with a baseball bat, a numbing flash that gave way to waves of pain. Darkness normally came next and Tanya struggled to maintain consciousness. The irony was that in order to do that she had to use the operation orb to cast a restorative spell.

The steady stream of warmth that emanated from this operation orb confused her fleeting sense of reason. It was stable despite chugging obscene amounts of mana. If she didn't find a way to control the outflow, she would end up too weak to remove it and die of exhaustion.

Professor Schugel drummed his fingers impatiently as he waited for Tanya to treat his coffee. The man's confidence unnerved her. She hated the thought that she could use this frustration as another stone to shatter her weary mind.

Absent the fear of burning alive, she had one hazard less to consider. The operation orb's mana consumption seemed greater than that of Item 95X, though, and she found it impossible to communicate with the clockwork mechanism as her usual self. The maddeningly precise system found her inputs too noisy and complicated to make out the order. Shutting off the competing voices and perspectives roaming her consciousness required the gruelling mind fragmentation procedure.

One was naturally opposed to it as the mental equivalent of severing one's limb. When the realisation and agony sank in, death could come before the bonds of metaphysical flesh and bone were broken. For Tanya, this was a non-issue. Having endured it twice in one day, she was fragile along the many cracks in her being.

The weakness gave her an idea: the operation orb functioned on simple orders and, therefore, didn't need much input to function. In essence, she could sacrifice a few fingers before chopping off the whole arm.

Joy of enlightenment faded quickly once she started mutilating her mind. Emotions screamed at common sense that endured the consequences of defying self-preservation. Smiles, memories, bleeding strands of thought approached the clockwork mechanism as if they were keys. The more she chipped off, the louder the remaining voices became and the fewer differences she recognised between them.

Her method was known as a brute force attack, but rather than be at ease that it would definitely yield results, she experienced brutality of less and less of her remaining conscious in a sea of angry little fragments.

Gluing it all together into a cohesive whole would have turned out impossible at this rate. She had to stop even if it meant failing Professor Schugel's expectations. The prevalence of this voice concerned her: if the essence of the remaining possible fragments was the same, continuing in hopes of achieving a different result was the definition of insanity.

There was just one quiet objection, the part of Tanya responsible for suggesting the intuitive solution in the first place.

She flashed a predatory grin at Professor Schugel as she found the sacrifice the operation orb yearned for. Children excelled at intuitive actions that complex adults unwittingly distanced themselves from. This speck of intuition, isolated like a crystal, would act as the translator between Tanya and the magnificent machine.

The epiphany brought tears to her eyes. She was still reeling inside from the bits and pieces she had broken off by mistake, but now that she had the solution and the operation orb performed as intended, she couldn't help herself. The power was intoxicating.

Tanya hadn't conducted spells in a small enclosed space saturated with her own mana. Given the operation orb's potential, a small restorative spell worked like near-permanent medicine. Painkillers, stimulants–Tanya could bathe her body in a magic cocktail to keep going until the eventual seizures and hallucinations became impossible to deal with.

Her body was her temple and she was the deity who owned it.

In the heat of the moment, she had almost forgotten about Professor Schugel's menial challenge. With this much precision on command, she promptly identified the microscopic layer of kerosene on top of the liquid and any residue stuck to the teacup's surface.

Professor Schugel understood she was done when the smell disappeared.

Rather than bask in the afterglow of success when he lifted the teacup for a sip, Tanya pursued more shenanigans by trying to taste his coffee from a distance using magic. What she sensed had her jump in shock.

"No, wait!"

Her legs wobbled like rubber whilst fatigue from having spent too much mana at the start clouded her thoughts, but she was positive she didn't want him to drink it. Something more sinister than fossil fuel lurked in the coffee.

"What is the meaning of this outburst, Second Lieutenant?"

"I wouldn't drink that coffee if I were you, sir." She then offered to take his cup.

Albeit bewildered, he realised the operation orb remained fully functional and conceded to curiosity, allowing Tanya to reach out and go behind his seat to the window. Squinting past the sunshine and great commotion outside caused by a group of scientists and the safety crew Mages, she found her target, a lush potted plant stood on the windowsill.

"Observe."

She poured the coffee onto the soil and stood back. In a matter of minutes, the plant lost its green and shrivelled up to die. The foreign substance in Professor Schugel's coffee worked better than the toughest herbicide. Had it not been for Tanya's exposed stunt earlier, he could have taken the plant's place.

Professor Schugel rubbed his chin as he glanced at his assistant. "Notify the Military Police. Discretely." When the assistant left, Professor Schugel turned his attention back to Tanya, "Now then, let's get started with your study session."

"Sir, do you think that is wise, given the circumstances?"

Tanya was yet to fully comprehend what just happened, but it looked like she saved Professor Schugel's life and he didn't show a drop of gratitude for it. She considered the nonchalance off-putting, infuriating even. This had been her chance to rid the Empire of a walking disaster and she blew it! Such was her lesson for acting on intuition instead of figuring out a more elaborate scheme like a responsible adult.

"The Empire's enemies are too weak to deliver a crushing blow and too stupid to know where to hit. Assassination attempts like this one are a testament to their aimless desperation, Second Lieutenant. Rest assured, I have no reason to suspect you, even though your disrespectful stunt left a bad taste in my mouth…and you killed my favourite office plant. Follow me to the laboratory; we're already behind schedule."

She felt sorry for the plant. What a waste.


	16. Get Smart

Professor Schugel picked up the teapot as he led Tanya into the laboratory. The final item on her itinerary was about to begin. Why did a mere study session give her the creeps?

Tanya eyed the warning labels at the entrance. Explosive, corrosive, toxic and a bunch of other hazards she didn't want to care about. In the hell formally known as the Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility, Professor Schugel's laboratory was just one of its inner circles. No wonder the head demon acting as her commanding officer looked happy to see her enter. This was his turf.

A brightly-lit windowless space packed with tools and tech met the description Tanya had in her head. Now that she was a part of this potentially unstable environment, anything that could go wrong would be supercharged by the experimental operation orb dangling below her neck.

"We've got to make up for the delay you've caused, Second Lieutenant. How good is your multi-tasking?"

 _Very_ , Tanya had wanted to say.

She didn't need her severed intuition, preoccupied with the operation orb, to tell it was another trick question. Professor Schugel may have caught her off guard the first few times, yet she had grown wise to his methods. The first order of business was to deduct the purpose of his query. Since he had named time the key issue, the multi-tasking question served as a formulaic warning more than anything.

Then again, multi-tasking would have gone against his mantra about focusing on the matter at hand. One could not dedicate themselves fully to several tasks at once. There would have to be either a seamless transition or poor execution. Considering Professor Schugel's propensity to raise expectations to an absurd level, he may have found the implicit demand for Tanya to double or triple productivity reasonable. If it were so simple, Tanya would have gone straight to the top in her previous life with the proposal to increase profits by sacking half of the workforce. There were limitations to what people could do even in matters of life and death, whether Professor Schugel accepted it or not.

Hilarious! She'd be crazy to have this much faith in him. He was about to throw more work on her tiny shoulders than they could possibly handle and he'd be able to tell if she tried to cheat. Spreading oneself thinly to maximise productivity in the short run resulted in incremental gains, not multiples.

Was failure a valid option? Tanya could fail by dying while carrying out such an order, but not refuse to carry it out. In essence, the only way to prove that Professor Schugel's expectations were backbreaking was to break her back. Simple!

Eyes narrowed, Tanya replied, "Very." If he decided to bite her for offering an incomplete answer, she would remind him that the instruction applied to equipment tests and this wasn't an equipment test. In theory, at least.

"That is to be expected, as you are terrible at focusing on one thing."

Professor Schugel's indifference signalled she answered correctly, not that one could have had an incorrect opinion of oneself. He offered her a seat in the corner next to some gutted operation orbs. Tanya identified one of them as Item 95A, the operation orb she had tricked him with. Even if she hadn't forgotten about the teapot, the data collected by the operation orb would have exposed her. It left the impression that Professor Schugel could not be outplayed in his game, but the things she accomplished during the second test hinted at the opposite. Craters and losses of testing personnel were the sad side effect of rushed experimental weapons tests. On the other hand, Tanya's outstanding performance with Item 95X was Professor Schugel's personal failure. A man whose theories crumbled in a practice put the lives of his subordinates at risk.

"You may start with the technical specifications of the Type 95 you're using right now," he said as he put three heavy books on the table.

Tanya refused to believe this was the heart of the challenge. Each tome consisted of roughly 700 pages of fine technobabble. She could skim to be done by nightfall, but not learn everything by heart, which was the unspoken requirement. If the multi-tasking he had in mind meant reading three technical manuals at the same time, he was not just nuts; Professor Schugel was ignorant to basic human biology.

"There are three tomes, sir."

He read her accusing tone and regrettably nodded. Tanya held her hopes down and was right to do so because Professor Schugel pulled out a fourth, much thinner book and put it on top of the rest.

"Of course. Here's something to address your concentration issue."

 _Mind Segmentation: Theory and Practice of the Named_ , the title read. Tanya was on the verge of tearing her hair out at his definition of helping her. She could break her mind in ten and still it would not be enough to memorise four books in one evening. Was he about to share an arcane eye multiplication spell? Hell no!

Tanya's eyelid twitched, but she retained her composure, "Is that all?"

He looked at the teapot with poisoned coffee in his hand. Tanya meant to ridicule him with the earlier remark and it backfired tremendously. Professor Schugel's work ethic was a crime against humanity.

"We are at war, Second Lieutenant, and our enemies have underestimated us thinking they could interrupt our coffee time. Teach them a lesson by demonstrating the might of the Empire," he said and poured two cups of the brew, placing one next to her and lifting the other to his lips. "What are you waiting for? It's insane to drink one's poisoned coffee cold."

 _Insane? I'll show you insane!_

Tanya pressed her teeth together, winding her face into a grin that barely held the growling inside. She would be doing the world a favour by blowing him up with his own invention. She had the power to do it and the whole building was saturated with her mana already. It would take less than a lit match to sow the seeds of destruction and have them blossom into sweet-sweet release.

A knock on the door let her snap out of seething rage. It was Professor Schugel's assistant. Tanya didn't care to overhear their whispers; she was too busy trying to decide how slow their death should be. Flaying had a visceral appeal, but she wasn't sure that her agitated mana would manage all the subtle strokes.

The longer they conversed, the more concern took hold of Professor Schugel's expression. He looked at Tanya over his shoulder before being presented a telegram. It had the markings of the General Staff Office, the top brass of the Imperial military. This was a significant development. Professor Schugel's decision to keep it out of her sight also made it a very interesting piece of information.

She had to get her hands on it and she had the underhanded means to do it.

Tanya's face relaxed as she poured enough mana into her operation orb to place an optical decoy and emulate time dilation. The combination was bound to be potent enough for a brief stealthy sneak. During the process, the operation orb produced a discernible amount of heat for the first time since she put it on.

This version possessed impressive safety features, albeit its mana consumption rate gave her a time window of just a few seconds. Such spells were used to shake off a tailing enemy force, not embarking on curiosity-fuelled shenanigans. Going for it under Professor Schugel's nose actually made it more dangerous, prompting Tanya to cast a series of stimulating spells on instinct as if about to enter a decisive battle.

All she had to do was catch a clear visual of the telegram. The operation orb would process the image and give her the information she needed. It was over in a blink of Professor Schugel's eye, but Tanya was so exhausted when she sat back down to replace the decoy she had left that it made her giggle inside louder than the message's contents did.

They were shutting down the facility!

Professor Schugel had asked his assistant to discretely notify the Military Police about the assassination attempt and got to experience the full and immediate force of a military bureaucracy. The investigation would paralyse any scientific activity and give Tanya the rear-line vacation she deserved.

To think that she was about to end his life when his own ineptitude offered her such a gift. She had to get her act together and strategize. One should not interrupt one's enemy when they were about to shoot themselves in the foot.

Professor Schugel didn't give her any time to relax, though. She was horrified to see that he was intent on taking a sip of his poisoned coffee and scrambled to do as she was told. First, she remotely analysed the drink for any foreign substances. A trace amount of kerosene aside, she couldn't find anything poisonous. The teapot the coffee was initially poured into was under Professor Schugel's watch in the laboratory, so it made perfect sense. His assistant would have never become his assistant if he were stupid enough to try to poison his boss, too.

The safety crew mages she had observed through Professor Schugel's office window gave her an idea he could not have accounted for: a poison spell. Tanya hadn't encountered one before, but it should not have been complicated to alter a thermal combustion spell into a dormant variant that caused damage over time under a set of triggers, like a magical booby trap.

It came with a magical signature, which guaranteed the culprit would be found and executed. Tanya had no trouble overwhelming the mana the spell was charged with and isolating it from the coffee. As a bonus, she repeated the task with her own cup as well as the teapot, simultaneously removing the kerosene pollutant and heating up the drink to a comfortable temperature. Unhappy that Professor Schugel took a drink without even looking her way, she made a show of uncovering the magic poison by blasting it with a freezing spell in the middle of the lab.

Mana was invisible to the naked eye, but an odd floating formation of ice turned heads. Professor Schugel scanned the formation with a standard operation orb and sent the assistant away to interpret the results, orb in-hand.

He offered no words of encouragement. Tanya had to admit she felt the heat when he rushed her with the attempt to poison himself. His confidence in her was a burden, but she didn't fault him for that. Tanya was a dependable person, after all. Just that she wanted to get something good out of it. Getting the news about the facility's shutdown didn't count because she was going to find out eventually.

Tanya held her nose buried in the books, going through the table of contents in hopes of finding out that Professor Schugel's operation orbs enabled reading magic or offered other ways to extricate her from the situation.

Her troubled mind never stopped analysing his words while the eyes darted from line to line, shoehorning information into her memory. The mind segmentation book looked like a valuable read, having been written by a group of Named Mages, aces with veritable combat experience. The part she had the time for laid out mental exercises to form clear-cut functional pieces of the mind, rather than the rough fragments she had been crumbling herself into. Tanya's final attempt to isolate intuition from the noise of the rest of her consciousness showed that she would have learned the right technique on her own, but a practitioner's guide helped avoid most pitfalls on the path to excellence. If only she had had the time to read it together with the other three books…

The task laid out in front of her was undoable. She established that much. Professor Schugel's insistence for her to do the impossible proved he was insane and should be dismissed from his post. Tanya would be glad to explain it to the visiting MPs. The solution sounded too good to be true, though.

Knowing Professor Schugel, he'd find a way to hurt her career prospects as a matter of course and return from the incident unscathed. She had to bear in mind that his exploits had cost the Empire a hefty sum and they continued to tolerate the rising death toll.

She stared at the three nearly-identical titles while replaying their conversation in her head. A thin line separated genius from insanity and Professor Schugel had the uncanny tendency to tiptoe on that line. The consequences of his work were brutal, but not brutal enough for him to be expunged from the military apparatus. He would be a fool to risk ending his career with an outrageous yet insignificant assignment, so Tanya had watch herself for a diversion hidden in plain sight.

The orb she was using. She attached it to the holder without having a proper look at the inscription. The other two operation orbs, dubbed Item 95A and Item 95X, had their codenames etched on the back. Each tome described an operation orb similar to the corresponding codenames, specifically, Type 95 Alpha and New Type 95 Experimental Operation Orb. If the letter "X" stood for "Experimental", the last tome dedicated to Type 95 Beta could have corresponded to Item 95B, which was removed from her itinerary.

 _Provided it was removed in the first place_.

The councillor had explained that she had been ordered to move on to Item 95X, but he had said nothing about Item 95B. In fact, Tanya may have accidentally pushed herself into a corner by building her case on top of false assumptions. The situation gave a new meaning to her getting a seat in the corner of the laboratory.

Professor Schugel didn't take long to add strain to her mental meandering. He placed an egg timer next to her and peeked at the tome she was reading.

"What are you doing?"

It was the moment of truth. Tanya took a big breath and said, "Reading about the operation orb I'm using, sir."

With a swipe of the hand, he removed the other two technical manuals, leaving Tanya flabbergasted. The thought that Professor Schugel wasn't a monster took time to sink in.

"Sir?!" she piped out accidentally. Tanya must have short-circuited because it seemed out-of-place to express joy about anything he did. This had to be a prologue to more hard work. She visualised the four tomes he'd bring instead of the two he had taken away.

"You've identified the operation orb and won't be needing these today. Did you think I expected you to go through all of them in one evening? I know the limits of my subordinates, Second Lieutenant. I'm not a monster."

Opportunity knocked on Tanya's door and she was ready to seize this unexpected guest until its last breath. Professor Schugel had mistaken her panicked interjection for outrage about knowledge being literally taken off the table. While his view of Tanya deviated from reality, she could press the issue to confuse him more.

"No, I meant to ask about the titles. The nomenclature differs from the 'Item' identification I received in my itinerary."

Tanya was proud of her scholarly tone. Albeit she was mildly curious about the reason for Item 95 to be referred to as Type 95 in the books, the point was to send Professor Schugel on a wild goose chase.

"You continue to concern yourself with menial details, Second Lieutenant. I had doubts about your potential as a multi-tasker, but you've dispelled them. Congratulations!"

She wanted to hide under the desk at the half-hearted compliment. Tanya should have known better than to try another primitive ruse with him. To fight the temptation to talk back, she sucked in her lips and held them squeezed firmly between her jaws. It was easier than putting a foot in her mouth to keep it from digging her into a deeper hole. Now that Professor Schugel acknowledged her so-called multi-tasking skills, he would push her to do more in less time. At this rate, she'd be yearning for the good old "focus on the matter at hand" tirade. Professor Schugel's solution to the concentration issue he had attributed to Tanya was to give her so many competing assignments that her brain wouldn't have the capacity to dwell on anything else.

The ticking egg timer reminded her that she shouldn't have felt relief about the challenge becoming surmountable all of a sudden. The three-hour time limit remained on the ambitious side even if she disregarded the pages containing engineering drawings.

While she laboured over the tome, Professor Schugel tinkered with a monitoring device. He may have been expecting a riposte from Tanya, so he spent a few minutes in silence. He put his glasses back on after spotting something of interest and turned his attention back to Tanya.

"Experimental equipment is itemised the same way military units are," he began in response to her question. "The actual name of the intellectual property is meaningless for the purpose of testing, but it is a customary attribute included in all technical documentation. The Elinium Factory labels each family of operation orbs as a 'Type' for convenience and posterity. Today you were testing the batch from the fifth review of the ninth core generation. Type 95A, or Alpha, is a single-core proof of concept. 95B is the quad-core Beta version that includes safety features and a plethora of combat assists, an unfortunate compromise of theory and practice."

Tanya kept her nose deep in the book as she listened. The calm explanation could have been an attempt to break her multi-tasking.

"That leaves X…" she whispered.

Active listening was a skill HR managers had to learn early on. It wouldn't have scored bonus points with Professor Schugel, but it helped her steer the conversation. If he kept talking, he was less likely to be up to something more nefarious.

"The paragon. You've given me plenty to work on, Second Lieutenant…" His trailing tone triggered Tanya's amber alert. Professor Schugel was excited to find something unusual about the monitoring equipment's readings. "And my workload continues to rise…"

It wasn't a complaint. He was happy to say it, but the tight smile that came with the words foretold misery. If his equipment recorded Tanya's telegram-reading stunt, she had given the crazy scientist unnecessary leverage.

"The Military Police are going to pay us a visit and it's likely their investigation would have delayed a few of the tests scheduled for tomorrow."

"'Would have'?" she asked in disbelief. He couldn't have figured out a way to avoid shutting the facility down during the investigation.

"So observant! You will not participate in the questioning because you'll spend the day at the glorious Elinium Factory together with the other newcomers. Think of it as a field trip. You like field trips, don't you?"


	17. Interrogation

It was difficult for Tanya to concentrate on the book. Professor Schugel squashed her chances to talk to the Military Police and complain about the labour conditions. The planned field trip was a cop out disguised as a great idea.

Tanya dreaded the dangers Professor Schugel must have set up for her at the Elinium Factory. He had made a reading assignment look like a life-threatening experience, so the promise of putting her in close proximity to an arsenal of lethal weapons was bound to result in a classic demonstration of Murphy's Law.

 _Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong._

Nodding to his previous question, she turned another page. Tanya had read technical manuals before, but she was never tasked with memorising one while entertaining the crazy scientist who wrote it. She took a gulp of her coffee. Professor Schugel was still alive after having some, regrettably, so she must have removed the magic poison, making it was safe to drink.

The brew was nothing to write home about: better than the frontline imitation, but not much else. Even magic wouldn't have saved the drink after it was poured from a teapot. Professor Schugel was needlessly cruel to prove his point. Unlike his subordinates, defenceless food products couldn't form a union and protest.

A tiny smile broke through Tanya's idle expression when she realised what was happening. Sat in the corner of Professor Schugel's laboratory, she was reading technical documentation about the operation orb she was using to keep an assassin's magic poison frozen in mid-air, all the while trying to enjoy a leisurely drink. The absurdity of the situation got to her only after she concluded that she could take on more activities at once. Why did conquering Professor Schugel's multi-tasking challenge feel so disappointing all of a sudden?

Tanya refused to let pride get the best of her. Acting on emotions made her predictable and Professor Schugel didn't need help in his attempts to dissect her psyche.

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

Done with his coffee, Professor Schugel glanced at his watch to check how long she has been keeping the poison spell frozen in mid-air. He assumed Tanya would have noticed him nod in agreement despite having her back turned on him.

She did notice it; the operation orb released a type of vibration that needled through the environment, giving the user an extrasensory 360-degree view. She wanted to avoid falling into another trap by relying on an implicit answer alone. Professor Schugel didn't take kindly to her intransigence.

"You continue to invent new ways to disappoint me, Second Lieutenant. I am a scientist. You can always speak your mind to a scientist."

Had it been as simple, he would have said it straight. Tanya took note that he agreed to lend an ear to her mind, not emotions, and he'd have to be in a scientific mood for it. In other words, the madman hiding underneath wouldn't listen to a voice of reason.

If disappointment got him to divulge this useful information, it paid to tap into the source again and Tanya had a good one at the ready. He did give her permission.

"I took part in equipment tests before I got the chance to read the technical documentation, which is supposed to accompany said equipment during every test."

He listened to her attentively. It perplexed Tanya because he must have gotten the gist of it by now, but he allowed her to continue and did not interrupt. Sensing another trap, she stopped short of voicing her complaint: she would have performed better, had she read the manual for the equipment she was supposed to test before any testing took place. One didn't have to be a rocket scientist to reach that conclusion.

Tanya resisted speaking out even as Professor Schugel slowly walked up behind her. She straightened her back as she prepared for a verbal dressing-down.

"Ingenuity and adaptability are admirable traits for a soldier to have, Second Lieutenant."

Her heart sank when she understood the implications. Professor Schugel should have stopped there, but he went on to name things as they were, likely as a warning against disappointing him in the future.

"I was not testing the operation orbs today. I was testing you."

She flipped a page, reading on, but her concentration lapsed and the ice she had materialised fell to the floor. Having him put it so bluntly left her speechless for a moment. It wasn't about his complete disregard for human life. Professor Schugel could throw people in a furnace to see if anyone would survive and then transfer the survivors to a hotter furnace. Tanya was seething about the higher-ups' decision to put her under his command. They knew what they were doing and the thought that they sanctioned this after declaring her a war hero was barbaric.

The only way Professor Schugel could have made it more insulting was by complaining that Tanya came without a manual herself. What a difficult piece of fleshy equipment she came out to be!

"We're just stepping stones in the eyes of progress, Second Lieutenant. Commit to this purpose and your contribution will be cherished forever."

In other words, he expected her to die for his cause. If not today, then tomorrow. It wouldn't have surprised her if the assassination attempt was an inside job committed by a desperate staffer. Saving Professor Schugel's life may have already put a target marker on her back, entwining her fate with this lunatic's. She absent-mindedly became an enabler for his evil. That dirt would never wash off!

And yet there she was, ploughing through specifications of spells the operation orb was optimised for. Her success would embolden Professor Schugel to demand more human sacrifice to pave the way for so-called progress. Fanatics had the nasty habit of worshipping bloodthirsty deities and Professor Schugel's adulation of progress brought him down to their level in Tanya's view.

The higher-ups may have considered him an adept manager whose methods forced individuals to expose their hidden potential. The military yearned to exploit one's abilities to the fullest, so his modus operandi made sense in the context of a hierarchy that supplanted one's freedoms. Given the choice, his subordinates would have fled to greener pastures long ago. Conflict was the only alternative Tanya could imagine in her current setting. Unless someone challenged Professor Schugel and his way of running the testing facility, he would push forward until everyone around him is represented by tombstones rather than a stepping stones.

"Forever is unscientific," Tanya retorted. She had to take it while he was her commanding officer, but she wasn't going to be nice about it.

"You're being inconsistent, Second Lieutenant. Are you not concerned with the distant future?"

Not while he was her commanding officer, no. Tanya's future plans encountered a roadblock in the form of Professor Schugel and her concentration had shifted to the immediate future. She'd find a way to clear the roadblock, and the bureaucratic apparatus that put it there will assist her, knowingly or otherwise.

She refused to answer the question. It was more productive to leave the puck there and prevent further escalation.

What looked like a great idea crashed miserably when Professor Schugel opened the door to the lab with a bang and gestured outside. "I'll ask you another way, then: do you want to go back to the front? You have my permission to speak from the heart."

Tanya strengthened her grip on the book. He was provoking her and she had to admit it worked to a tremendous effect. Professor Schugel had no idea whom he was dealing with if he thought this wouldn't turn back around to hurt him later on. The audacity, the arrogance, the pig-headedness–there was no limit to Tanya's outrage.

Had it not been for the finisher, she would have fallen for it. Professor Schugel wanted her to "speak from the heart", which sounded like a rephrasing of his previous appeal, only this one targeted her emotions. He had made it clear that he ignored the emotional side of things, so taking him up on the facetious choice was career suicide. Even if she answered the question negatively, it gave him information about her true priorities and Tanya wanted to avoid that at all costs.

"My concern is limited to the completion of the matters at hand, sir."

Tanya resorted to mental gymnastics by convincing herself she was taking a step back, telling the truth and remaining loyal to her principles. Essentially, she was counting on a misunderstanding. Since Professor Schugel forgot to properly define the distant future, she was likely to get away with a loose definition of "matters at hand". Survival counted as a matter at hand that extended far into the future, and she had other things to care about while Professor Schugel expected her to multi-task.

"Excellent. You are about to make progress."

As he closed the door, locking it this time, Tanya exhaled deeply to calm herself. Her progress was irrefutable. Professor Schugel was definitely up to something if he elected to goad her more. Was it to test her emotional stability? Tanya made it seem that she subscribed to his train of thought with the last reply, but he would have been a fool to buy into it.

The semantics of the congratulatory remark followed by thinly veiled criticism reinforced the latter. Tanya guessed it could have been the ice she left melting on the floor and went on to use the operation orb to remove any stains. She had to admit the precision of the Type 95B was remarkable, albeit it left her so drained that coffee didn't help.

Professor Schugel returned to tower over her with a sly smirk. Tanya gazed at the book in front of her and pretended to read. His uncanny happiness had her bracing for trouble.

"A dozen personnel died to their own ineptitude whilst testing the Type 95. You, on the other hand, became the target of a failed assassination attempt on day one. Tell me, Second Lieutenant, whose ineptitude did you expose?"

 _Yours, sir_ , she thought. Her mind caught on to what he was trying to say fairly quickly, but she had to make certain.

"Testing personnel are expendable, as you've demonstrated, sir. It would be better to say you were the target."

That one had to sting, since it was a reversal of his earlier poke. She started with subtle critique and complimented his importance to the operation in the end. Now he had to explain the point behind his unintuitive question.

He took a moment to reply. Tanya didn't know whether to consider it a good sign or not.

"Better… Hmm, yes, that's one way of putting it, should you dismiss the rest of the scientific corpus stationed on this facility. Like your predecessors, Second Lieutenant, scientists can be replaced. What makes a scientist's fate less significant is that only the notes he leaves behind matter. I believe now you're on better footing to answer correctly."

Tanya suspected the answer would be about expendability, minus the poke at the difference between a good answer and a correct one. She was right to throw it out there. The hard part came next.

Why would she be the target?


	18. Panic

Professor Schugel thought highly of himself, but an assassination attempt had to be tied to the removal of a concrete threat rather than his concrete ego.

 _Unless the higher-ups have finally figured out that his ego was a threat and took matters into their own hands._

While the thought amused Tanya, it had little merit because poison wasn't the Imperial go-to method. They would have shot him in the head or just asked her to do him in. She'd have considered it an early birthday present.

The issue of motive he had raised was a complicated one. On the surface, it didn't make sense for an enemy spy to expose himself by assassinating Tanya, who was very much replaceable in her position as testing personnel. If testing personnel weren't replaceable or prone to die on their own while testing dangerous equipment, she wouldn't have been transferred to Klusross. The fragility of life in this world, her own included, was a tragedy.

"I surmise the facility has had a clean bill of health until now," Tanya asked indirectly.

Rings of security erected around the testing facility effectively cordoned it off from the rest of the world. One had to get through all of the checkpoints to discover the facility's significance and it was unlikely that the Federation had the resources to waste on a haphazard expedition into the unknown. Any attempt to relay sensitive information back home would have ended the operation because mail and telephone conversations had to go through the Admissions Office.

The Folkerr Factory or its testing grounds would have made a more apparent venue for infiltration. Folkerr mass-produced standard operation orbs and whatever came off its production lines was likely to be shipped to the front in the immediate future. The Federation was too weak to fight a prolonged war, which precluded the luxury of sending an undercover Mage to the Klusross facility, infamous for producing corpses instead of breakthroughs. The Empire's enemies would have been wise to protect such a facility, as its activities inadvertently advanced their goals.

"Yes, indeed. Assumptions can only get you so far, Second Lieutenant. What's on your mind?"

"The assassin's identity, sir. You've dismissed the possibility of the incident being an inside job."

His imposing presence retreated after hearing the reply. He paced around the windowless laboratory in silence, interrupted only by the sound of pages turning in Tanya's book. The scenario of a frustrated staffer going commando would have unravelled the most pressing question, so Professor Schugel's insistence on it not being the case was suspect. As acting facility manager, he would have gotten the blame for driving a subordinate to the brink thus encouraging others to come out with their own gripes. Blaming a hostile nation put the ball in the reclusive Intelligence Bureau's court.

"The Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility is a secret installation. All personnel undergo careful vetting by the Intelligence Bureau and are monitored throughout their stay here. Consider your colleagues to be rational. More rational than you, in any case, and we've already established that you are not suicidal."

Tanya understood that pursuing the issue in front of Professor Schugel could trouble her further down the line. An assassination attempt coinciding with her arrival would have been a convenient lead for the investigators. Still, she wasn't keen on blindly trusting him. He had to be aware of the psychological pressure he exerted over his subordinates and its long-term harm.

"A rational person wouldn't go all-in with a daring move unless they were pressed to the wall…"

"Take into account that we haven't had new arrivals for weeks, testing personnel aside."

In other words, if they passed the acclimatisation period without going insane, they were bound to last until their rotation out of the testing facility. This was valuable information.

"The assassin used an intricate alteration of an explosion spell to make it function like poison. We are dealing with a Mage, one whose training or experience differs significantly from the standard fare from Officer Cadet School."

"Well, Second Lieutenant, is it training or experience?"

Tanya had mentioned both to buy time to develop the hypothetical narrative. Professor Schugel's impertinent comment stumped her at first because the difference didn't seem to matter, but the longer she thought about it, the more she liked what she had said. Detective skills would make a fine addition to her résumé.

"Experience would be the intuitive answer. However, an experienced Mage would have to hide his magic signature at all times. After one's magic is fully awakened, nullifying its presence while sleeping at night becomes impossible. One has to be conscious to maintain stealth. That leaves training as the only viable answer."

"Why did you reject the notion of a self-taught Mage?"

The difference between Tanya's questions and Professor Schugel's was that he voiced them whenever he felt like it without fear of repercussions. Tanya had to watch her tongue, considering she arrived less than 24 hours ago. She dreaded the eventuality of barking back at him. Engaging in a shouting match like the one she witnessed during preparations for a test of Item 95X would have voided her moral high ground and set a precedent for future encounters. She'd see no end to criticism of her emotional instability.

"Sir, Mages are conscripted by all Great Powers. For one to learn a unique variant of the explosion spell on one's own and not be discovered by the military is an unlikely event. Such a person appearing on this facility puts the combined events' likelihood below any reasonable level of statistical significance."

"Outstanding! An Aerial Mage with knowledge of statistics. No wonder your focus is so weak."

He did it again. Professor Schugel's outburst reminded Tanya that her intellect differentiated her from the other Aerial Mages no less than her age. Tanya was about to dismiss it as a fleeting remark when he pulled out a notebook. This was beginning to feel like a real interrogation, minus the civil rights.

"The problem with the training approach is that we are at war with the Federation and poison is not a part of their doctrine. It is practiced in an entirely different region…"

Professor Schugel sat down on a chair next to her and took note of her remarks. At one point, the pen went for a triple underline. Professor Schugel hummed, about to interrupt. She found it strange; he normally interrupted her without a warning.

"Perhaps, you should go back to the original question of why, not who."

Tanya shrugged. "Panic."

"You're a ten-year-old girl. Why would your arrival make a spy panic?"

He was grinning, but not because he enjoyed berating her. Professor Schugel was pulling information out of her in a way that broke one's internal filter. Tanya was aware of the method and could see the shimmer of a scientist's curiosity in his eye. She was a soldier, though, not a lab rat.

"Looks can be deceiving, Engineering Director von Schugel."

"Oh, can they?" He put the pen back in his pocket and stood up. Tanya got him to back off.

"A spy made it through your vetting procedures."

"I am confident the Military Police will rectify the mistake committed by the Intelligence Bureau."

Professor Schugel had his story down to a tee. Then again, the fact he had to make excuses to a subordinate laid bare the uncomfortable truth: a crisis was afoot. Not that Tanya was worried; his loss was her gain and the time was right to lock in the gains of this exchange.

"Their investigation will paralyse the testing facility."

Deafening silence spread out in the laboratory after her remark. She eavesdropped on his stature and immediately returned to her reading. Professor Schugel stood in place, eyes closed, an ever-growing smile breaking the notion of peace of mind. By the time he regained his composure and turned to face her again, Tanya started wondering if she'd need to raise a magic barrier to deflect the pending disaster.

"Not quite. There will be detainees, but the most the spy can hope to achieve is a minor delay."

Tanya blinked at what she heard. It would have made sense for the spy to count on scheduled testing activities grinding to a halt until the MPs' departure. Professor Schugel sounded like he had a solution, but his minute giddiness betrayed a dark twist.

"Detainees?"

"Naturally. We need to give the MPs people to work with, so they leave the same day they arrive."

"There's no way they'll find the culprit in one day. Other than myself, only the safety screw have a magic signature and theirs did not match the poison spell."

"We're just stepping stones in the eyes of progress. You'll understand when it's your turn to make a sacrifice."

This was unthinkable. He was ready to blame innocent people for committing a crime at a time of war, just so he could carry on as if nothing happened. Any efficiency increases achieved through illegal means were illusory, as they carried severe punishment when found out.

Tanya jumped from her seat in protest. He wasn't going to make her an accomplice. "Sir! False incrimination of one's subordinates is-"

"How embarrassing, Second Lieutenant! You've disobeyed the order and stopped multi-tasking!" he yelled. Tanya stifled the urge to shout back and sat down, fuming inside. He continued, "My assistant has already posted the operation orb that recorded the magic signature of the poison spell, thanks to you. It will take some time for it to reach the analysts at the Intelligence Bureau and even more time for them to start cooperating with the MP investigators."

Why was he explaining this to her? He was obviously stalling for time, yet it played right into the spy's hands. The military had to act quickly to prevent further hostile acts.

"Other than that operation orb, only you and your Type 95B can match the spell to its caster. Unfortunately, you won't be here tomorrow to help and I cannot afford to degrade your experience with the Type 95B. That means even if your assumption about the spy's motive was wrong, you are the sole witness who can identify the spy's magic signature before the end of the official investigation."

Tanya hated being right in the worst way possible. She was the target for sure now and Klusross was unlikely to run a witness protection program. Professor Schugel segregated the pieces on his improvised chessboard, effectively leaving the others as pawns to duke it out while he observed from a safe distance. Such underhandedness explained why he was in charge of the testing facility despite his terrible character. At least, he was on the Empire's side or, more precisely, on the side of the Empire's technological advancement.

With this setup, she was to be thrown under the bus with the rest. Not incarcerated like some unfortunate innocent folk, but she didn't like the suggestion of getting another reason to fear for her life. Existence X stood on top of her agenda.

"Testing personnel is my current job description. You can't imply that-"

"The Tactical Training Department will be impressed to learn that you've single-handedly pulled off a covert operation and apprehended the enemy spy."

Her options were to either risk everything by defying his orders and ratting him out to the MPs or put her life at stake by going solo against an unknown opponent. Tanya calculated that if her word was to go against the word of her commander, she would be the one to suffer the consequences. Any evidence of his misdeeds she'd have recorded on her operation orb was bound to disappear, given that she'd be against the orb's creator. Picking a fight with an assassin would count as extra credit towards a medal or two. It hardly seemed fair that the military considered shiny ornaments fair compensation for self-sacrifice.

Both options stank. There had to be a third alternative for a pacifist like Tanya. When she realised that Professor Schugel has been sizing up her reaction the entire time, her focus returned to the military rail. She sighed to herself at what she was agreeing to.

"It's unlikely the spy will resort to magic a second time; that'll expose them."

"Adaptability and ingenuity, Second Lieutenant! The sooner you find the spy, the sooner those caught in the crossfire will be able to return to the facility. I advise expedience because the novel mana manipulation skill you've demonstrated during the first test will attract unwanted attention."

"Yes, sir."

This was supposed to be a study session…


	19. More Coffee

The damage has been done. Tanya acknowledged her new role as an assassination target. An enemy spy capable of magic had snuck into the testing facility and Tanya was the only witness who could expose him.

She had little confidence in the pending MP investigation. A spy skilful enough to slip through the Intelligence Bureau's background check was bound to be prepared for such an outcome.

Professor Schugel's decision to handle the issue discretely and not raise the alarm peeved Tanya on end. They could have put the testing facility on lockdown, but Professor Schugel valued his experiments more than the people necessary to run them. Tanya despised his blind dedication to progress.

"You've managed to operate your Type 95 this long without exploding, Second Lieutenant. What is your secret?"

"Exhaustion, sir," she replied with indifference. After letting him provoke her once, she was sure to concentrate on the technical documentation and keep her emotions in check. The sleep-inducing boredom certainly helped, as did the operation orb's mana drain.

"More coffee?"

Tanya put her hand over her cup. "No, but a means to extricate myself from this ordeal would do."

Was she being rude to him? Yeah, she was. He deserved it. If not for being an insufferable jerk, then at least for intending to pour coffee out of a teapot. It was a petty thing to fight over, but she was beginning to understand that he was stuck with her, so she didn't expect substantial pushback. Professor Schugel's perverse worldview permitted behaviours that would have resulted in Tanya losing her rank, were her superior officer a proper soldier.

The first signs were promising. He put the teapot away and walked off. Rather than sit down and take it, though, he pulled something out of a locked drawer before making his way back to Tanya's desk.

"Second Lieutenant, there's always a way out! A permanent one at that!"

His boisterous demeanour pointed to something terrible on his mind, and the pistol he placed next to her reading material confirmed the suspicion. Tanya analysed the sidearm with her operation orb, learning that it was loaded with live rounds, and tried to ignore the direction the barrel was facing.

"I take offense to the insinuation."

"The alternative costs are too high got you. I see, I see. You must have other priorities, then."

Morality seemed alien to him. Tanya would have never addressed a subordinate with such a flippant attitude towards life and death. More than anything, she hated the implications of the verbiage. She had accidentally revealed her priorities to him and he named a steep price for tolerating them. Failure was an option only if she wasn't intending to live to see the consequences.

"I am a soldier. That sums up my priorities."

"May I remind you that this is your third refusal to leave the facility. Your dedication is remarkable!"

Tanya pushed the pistol away, nudging the barrel in his direction.

"Same to you," she replied dryly.

Tanya was irritated that he exploited every advantage he had, especially her irritation, to forward his own agenda. The part that frightened her was that he raised the price of her departure every time he offered her an illusion of choice. After Professor Schugel stopped short of telling her to off herself if she had any objections to the arrangement, she couldn't fathom the surcharge she'd get the fourth time.

"You truly are a unique specimen, Second Lieutenant. Exhaustion should have knocked you out by now, yet your operation orb continues to record data."

As she listened to him, she understood that there wasn't going to be a fourth time. Not because he lacked the imagination to offer an outcome worse than death; he probably had something of the sort up his sleeve. He violated the assumption Tanya had been basing her arguments on.

She's not replaceable!

"With you at my disposal, we should be able to verify the theoretical limits of the Type 95 in a matter of weeks."

Everyone who could replace her was already dead!

Tanya cursed the fate Existence X had thrust upon her. She was the mad scientist's final test subject, destined to suffer the longest.

"Height, speed, mana conversion – you will put every page of the documentation in front of you to action. Aren't you excited to have the honour, Second Lieutenant?"

She was about to have a panic attack and he did everything to see her teeter past the edge. Without meaning to, she considered all the gruesome ways she could die in each test. She'd have to succeed in every one of them just to keep playing. Existence X needed to succeed only once to win the game.

Professor Schugel's occasional leniency made sense now, as did the special treatment she was getting at the mess hall. It was set up to squeeze the most utility out of her as often as possible. Tanya resisted visualising what type of creature it was most suited for and what happened when they were "done".

"I got excited with the Type 95X, so I'll settle for exhaustion this time, sir."

His expression mellowed down. The test's result was a chilling reminder that things did go out of control on Professor Schugel's watch. Given the choice of losing her mind or her life, Tanya had sacrificed the former, unwittingly confirming its insanity-inducing effect. It was a shameful thing to do and the fact so many people saw her prancing around mindlessly left a burning mark. She, too, had fallen under the orb's influence.

"Hmm, yes. It would be best not to repeat that test close to valuable infrastructure..." Professor Schugel trailed off. This was unusual for him.

"Sir?"

Professor Schugel left the teapot next to the gun on Tanya's desk and said without looking her way, "Help yourself." His eyes were focused on the typewriter.

Tanya took her time to digest the meaning of his words and outlandish behaviour. She raised a hand to her forehead and mouthed "No" as she realised what it was: she inspired his madness to come up with another test that involved the Type 95X.

The feeling of dread wouldn't leave Tanya for the rest of the study session. She memorised ways to operate her Type 95B more efficiently, but this wasn't the orb Professor Schugel cared about. He staked his pride on the orb she has had the most trouble with, the one that needed a heavy lead container for safe transportation.

Compared to the paragon orb, the Type 95B had additional modules for ease of use, which required more mana. If that was the only difference between the two, why did the most power hungry orb require less severe storage conditions?

The extrasensory awareness it gave her was another worrisome consideration. Standard operation orbs merely amplified one's natural senses while this one gave the user the possibility of peering through nearby objects.

 _X-ray vision…_

Tanya didn't find any answers in the technical documentation. The most she could gather was that the orb's four cores were made of "elinium", a material she hadn't heard of before. Tanya was positive the text didn't mean the name of the factory that manufactured the cores. Professor Schugel distinguished the two through letter case.

She was bound to find out eventually, and she didn't expect the answer to come in the form of good news. In the end, it didn't matter what the equipment was made of because she was forced to test it, regardless. The little oversight Professor Schugel had reassured her that other people looked into this and didn't find anything wrong with the specifications. If the orbs' petulant sensitivity was a transient issue, there was promise for at least one of the prototypes.

Tanya closed the book. She finished her task. The egg timer showed that she had a few moments to spare, which translated into a better evaluation. She decided to reward herself with the leftover coffee. The mess hall was unlikely to serve that for dinner.

Hopefully, her memory wouldn't fail her when it was time to test her knowledge. If what she had read on mind segmentation was true, the technique took a toll on the Mage's memory. Unlike the functional components of the mind that could be severed with the right mental exercises, various memories took up unexpected spaces. Unless one recalled every memory to date, which was impossible, one could never be sure that it wasn't in the way.

Overreliance had terrible consequences. Tanya was anxious to find an alternative method because the status quo meant inching towards insanity through memory loss.

Though, she was willing to forget some things. The typing she eavesdropped on while approaching Professor Schugel was one of them. The unfinished document was addressed to the Inspector General and its header read: "Temporary Testing Site Requisition for Enhanced Equipment Diagnostics." Despite the bureaucratic jargon, it was enough to ring Tanya's alarm bell.

He had come up with a test designed specifically for her. The coordinates for the suggested testing site placed it somewhere in the southern mountains, which spoke volumes about the danger level involved. Professor Schugel proved himself painfully honest in writing when he pointed out the formation of a valley in place of the nearest mountain range as an example of possible collateral damage.

Tanya put the material she was given next to his typewriter and stood at attention in an effort to pause the process.

"Assignment complete, sir."

"Congratulations," he said, not intending to rise from his typing. "You've broken your disappointment streak. How are you?"

A gunshot would have been a fair answer, but life wasn't fair. Tanya pressed her teeth together and said, "Alive and motivated…"

She could see him smile at the remark. Normally, one would have backed off after receiving a thinly veiled admission of defeat like Tanya's. Professor Schugel opted to go the other route.

"I suspected your exhaustion was temporary. Take care of your Type 95, Second Lieutenant. Experimental operation orbs are deposited in a high-security area when they are not in use. It would be a criminal offence for someone to be seen carrying it outside a sanctioned testing environment."

Tanya froze at what she heard: two conflicting statements and no explicit order. She could do the right thing by removing the operation orb, allowing Professor Schugel to put it in storage. If she were the enemy spy, she would have been dreaming of separating the two targets that were only dangerous together. Without the operation orb, Tanya was susceptible to an ambush and she was certain that Professor Schugel's inventions couldn't defend themselves.

Keeping the orb, on the other hand, guaranteed her survival until tomorrow as long as no one saw her with it. Failure meant a criminal record, among other things.

She wasn't intending to become a criminal. Until now, everything she did was sanctioned by her commanding officer. She had picked up the orb because she was ordered to.

Or was she?

The awkward question had her stumped. Professor Schugel hadn't given her the appropriate order. Was she in trouble now?

Professor Schugel held up a sealed envelope between two of his fingers as he continued typing with the other hand.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Your schedule for tomorrow. Do not open it until you get to your private room."

Tanya grabbed the envelope, happy to receive a workable command for a change. It unnecessarily roused her curiosity, but Professor Schugel could be direct when he wanted to.

She was about to return to her deliberations about criminality when Professor Schugel rose from his chair to unlock the door. By the time Tanya realised that he was distracting her on purpose, she found herself outside the lab.

"Enjoy the rest of your evening. Tomorrow won't be as easy!"

The door closed shut in front of her nose.

"Hey!" she exclaimed and grabbed the handle to get back in.

It wouldn't budge; he locked her out. How could Tanya voice her concerns and objections if he refused to listen? She could shout them through the door, but the pair of eyes watching her discouraged her from making a scene.

Tanya hid the operation orb in a pocket and turned to face Professor Schugel's assistant, who had run into the office to check on the commotion. His puzzled look told Tanya exactly what she needed to know: he didn't see the operation orb.

She made a curt nod and hurried off, accidentally bumping into the worn souvenir table and knocking one of the items off. The explosive collar she had worn during the second test fell to the floor and rolled to the assistant's feet before popping open.

Rather than explosives, it appeared to contain a dozen standard operation orbs. Tanya saved herself the embarrassment of drowning in more of her own assumptions by exiting Professor Schugel's office. She was intending to leave the administrative building ASAP, but her bladder guaranteed she wouldn't make it that far.

She shouldn't have drunk all that coffee.


	20. Privilege Check

To make matters worse, the restroom was occupied. Precious seconds trickled down, as did Tanya's patience.

 _What's taking so long?_

Tanya thought about knocking to remind the occupant that they were abusing their access to military property. She abandoned the idea when she realised it was dark inside. Either site administration issued personal restroom keys, which was unlikely, or a certain Engineering Director had a cruel sense of humour.

It was a nice try, but Tanya still had her experimental Type 95B operation orb. Manipulating the lock with magic was as easy as sleeping and Tanya pulled the door open the instance she heard the liberating click.

She pressed the moist light switch and was about to get in the cubicle when her glee crashed against the sight in front of her. The administrative building's mighty guard sat there in a pool of his own blood and vomit. Pieces of a broken coffee mug lay in the sink under running water. There was no magic that could allow her to use the restroom in time.

The incompetent enemy spy would pay for this attack on her basic needs. Assassinations had to be carried out with surgical precision, not broad strokes. The guard's only crime was helping himself to the administration's coffee supply.

She promptly washed the hand she used to touch the switch and closed the door before going back to Professor Schugel's office. The cool reception she received promised a laugh at his expense when she'd show him the cost of not raising the alarm.

The foul smell had begun spreading into the corridor when Professor Schugel and his assistant got in front of the restroom.

"Your grievances with the plumbing could have waited until tomorrow, Second Lieutenant. An Aerial Mage of your calibre should know how to deal with incontinence."

Tanya suppressed a smirk as she opened the door and watched Professor Schugel's expression. He frowned.

"Fair retribution for raiding the administration's coffee supply. The Intelligence Bureau forgot to add caffeine to the list of disqualifying addictions. I'll discuss this with the Admissions Office in the morning." He then turned to Tanya. "Congratulations, Second Lieutenant! You've earned the early bird privilege and will be assisting mess hall staff as the official breakfast inspector."

"Sir?"

There was a dead guy on the toilet and Professor Schugel made it sound like it was her fault. The reaction boggled her brain, as this was now a case of murder, not a failed assassination attempt. She wasn't going to take responsibility for Professor Schugel's cockup.

"I reiterate, enjoy the rest of your evening. You should have forwarded your initiative to the cleaning staff before escalating it to me."

"Permission to speak freely?" He was pissing her off and deserved to hear a piece of her mind. This was not how they did things in the military.

"Denied. If the magic poison did not degrade by now, the spy is a fool whose apprehension is a meritless task even a child can do."

She shouldn't have asked for permission and just come forward, but protocol dictated warning one's superior officer about any objectionable topics. Tanya's training and career aspirations put her at a loss in the exchange. She noted the difference in his tone: she wasn't talking to Professor Schugel, the mad scientist, only Engineering Director von Schugel, the Acting Facility Manager.

Failing to respect the order of top management was bound to have material repercussions, so Tanya took her early morning posting to the mess hall as a warning rather than real disciplinary action. She didn't like the idea of waking up earlier nor what kitchen staff would think upon seeing her, yet she suspected that everyone else at the facility would feel grateful for her service when they found out about the guard's gruesome death.

Without meaning to, Professor Schugel may have added another pending award to her résumé.

In the end, Tanya was relieved to get out of the administrative building. She hadn't thought of using magic to deal with personal problems, as it sounded wasteful under normal circumstances. The experimental operation orb she held in secret proved itself uniquely advantageous.

She opted to keep it activated outside despite the danger of being detected by monitoring equipment, in case the spy did anything careless. Tanya figured that the scientists working on the Type 95 project had finished their field work and were busy analysing the data she provided them in the morning.

To keep appearances up, she avoided unnecessary interactions on her way. If it weren't for dinner, she would have headed straight to her private room. Although the amenities exceeded her expectations due to the antiquated assumption that the only women to visit the facility would be royalty, this was no Tokyo Hotel. Mini-bars weren't going to be invented for a long time.

"Second Lieutenant Degurechaff!"

Tanya saw the familiar corporal drive towards her. She must have been lost in thought when she left the building because she missed him at the entrance. He would have done well to leave her alone.

"How did it go?" he asked, the shuttle car slowing to walking speed next to her as she ignored the implicit offer to drive her to the mess hall. She has had enough implicit stuff to deal with in one day.

Brushing him off without a word would have been rude, and he may have previously received orders to assess her state of mind, so she had to tread carefully.

"Are you familiar with the 'early bird privilege', corporal?"

He smiled at the question. "It's a step up from KP duty, that's why they call it a privilege. 0500 hours posting instead of the usual 0400 with the cooks. You've done good if you got off this easy."

"Eh?"

"Mages mess up a lot on their first day. Some are sent back to the front or commissioned to the Elinium Arsenal for weapons tests."

Tanya pretended the news didn't surprise her. Being relegated to the front counted as an honourable way to die even though there was no honour in cannon fodder. Professor Schugel had outdone himself by inventing a class of fodder ranking below his guinea pigs at the testing facility. Dog meat would have been an apt term, yet dog meat did not get shot at every day as long as it continued to squirm.

The one thing she could have faulted Professor Schugel for in this context was that real dog meat performed reliably when fired at, unlike failing Mages. Tanya would have also welcomed a less time-consuming solution, provided the rumours about the Elinium Arsenal were true.

"Professor Schugel is too creative for the firing squad. I see, I see."

Her ambiguous remark must have confused the corporal, as he stared blankly into the distance. The sight of his mental gears grinding to a halt eased her up a bit, though: such a dolt couldn't be operating under Professor Schugel's special orders to spy on her. Professor Schugel was too smart to trust an idiot.

In fact, one would have to be an idiot to trust an idiot. Tanya considered them inherently unreliable.

The smile that had bashfully leapt onto her face withdrew when she put that logic against her own actions. If she didn't do this right, the corporal could end up thinking she wished for Professor Schugel to meet a fate worse than the firing squad, which was too close to the truth for comfort.

"Just tired ramblings of a little girl in the military. Don't worry yourself, mister," she said after taking a seat behind the corporal and patted his shoulder. The testing facility was short on humane treatment of fellow humans, so she hoped to defuse the situation with a kind gesture.

The shuttle sped off, leading up to an uncharacteristically bland dinner.

She didn't bother to analyse why food quality diminished because she was likely to reach the conclusion that it was somehow her fault. At least it wasn't poisoned. Magic aside, the poisons of in this world that she knew about came with a distinctive taste or smell. Either would have stood out if added to the viscous matter she ingested. Kitchen staff had the nerve of calling it porridge, but Tanya didn't complain to anyone. Come tomorrow, she'd join them and assume the role of a glorified magic detector.

Considering that security failed to spot the Type 95B on her person, her punishment may have been a necessary measure to prevent another incident. She didn't blame the higher-ups in charge of security for this oversight because her skills were just too good. Tanya-proof security did not exist.

Once back in her private room, Tanya sighed and slid down to the floor with her back against the door. She had made it to the end of her first full day at the facility. Alive, in one piece.

It would have been a relief had it not been for the _magical_ device dangling from her chest. Excitement took hold when she pulled it out in front of herself. The brilliant crimson light streaming from the jewel was a testament to her power. This operation orb could appreciate the depths of her ability and she respected the craftsmanship involved.

Yes, a madman build it. Yes, it came with crippling long-term side effects. Yes, it could blow her to pieces if she as much as looked at it wrongly. If nothing else, these properties commanded respect and now that she was its user she would strike fear in the hearts of men more than ever before.

The temptation was there as she lay transfixed by the light.

"Poof."

If she willed it, the testing facility would cease to exist. Not explode in a flashy inferno, no, just cease. Tanya's magic would twist reality to such an extent that it wouldn't make a sound until she was done with it. In this world, rejecting one's reality was not necessarily a form of escapism if a Mage was behind it.

She would make her escape. Existence X could count on it.

* * *

Author's note: Hi! If you're reading this you've been patient with me for the last 40,000 words or so. Thank you!

There's plenty of content to go, but I really-really suggest resting your eyes a bit. Tanya's Evening Ritual from chapter 21 will still be there for you.


	21. Evening Ritual

Her escape started with a bath.

The testing facility at Klusross offered very basic amenities to soldiers and staff alike. Then again, even if Tanya happened to be okay with communal showers, Personnel Affairs made their objection apparent by providing a bathroom as part of her accommodation.

Already nose-deep in suds, Tanya lathered up gleefully. An onlooker would have mistaken her for a mere child if it weren't for the Type 95B operation orb suspended in the air. The orb's crimson glow added a sinister undertone to Tanya's frolic. She could have just turned the lights on, but adapting a piece of experimental hardware to function as a lamp amused her, as did the fact the orb was lit with the power of her mind.

She toyed with puns of getting more _bright_ ideas until the soap started tickling her nose, prompting a sneeze. To her delight, the orb remained stable. She was getting a hang of it, but she did not let the illusion of success get to her.

The detached irritation Tanya routinely wore on her face returned. She still had work to do. Professor Schugel had given her an envelope containing the itinerary for tomorrow and she now had the most privacy she could have counted on to keep its contents a secret.

Tanya wiggled her toes above the water while mentally searching for the envelope in her room. She wasn't going to leave the bath for such a trifling task and, if anything, her operation orb was precise to a fault. The envelope slid underneath the door before unfurling in front of her. Tanya put her arms behind her head as she leisurely read Professor Schugel's typing.

He had gone to great lengths to pack her day with more dangerous experiments than it was humanly possible to conduct. While it flattered Tanya, superhuman expectations did not translate to a salary increase.

On the contrary, he cut her statutory meal breaks to make room for whatever his madness intended her to do. She only skimmed the list and grumbled about being cheated out of the few fringe benefits an experienced Aerial Mage counted on.

As she pondered the text of her written complaint, a noise from inside her room ground her thoughts to a halt. Tanya jumped at the realisation that someone had broken in. The operation orb stopped glowing and fell into the soapy water, leaving her in a fit of panic in complete darkness.

Tanya slipped and ended up diving underwater instead of getting up. The soap made her eyes burn, adding to her rage about losing control of the operation orb. If the spy had infiltrated her room, she rendered herself defenceless, temporarily blind and subject to a scolding from Professor Schugel. It would have been rich of her to expect the operation orb to be bathwater-resistant.

The splashing noises in the bathroom grew more intense whilst the commotion in her room continued. She managed to find the operation orb and felt her way to a towel so as to avoid facing the intruder naked. The surprise factor had its merits, but bullets were impervious to it when fired.

A towel messily tubed around her, Tanya stormed out of the bathroom to wreak havoc upon the intruder. Her eyes, still sore from the soap, darted around to spot the target. As soon as she would size up her opponent, she'd concoct a plan of action that preferably did not consist of lunging at them with the intent to scratch and bite. That was a terrible plan and Tanya would have been glad to have anything better in store.

"S-show yourself!"

The room was silent, barring the sound of water dripping from her hair. She was alone. After getting so worked up about a fight to the death, she swore under her breath about not getting release.

She did not hallucinate the happening, though. Someone really had been inside her room. Tanya was sure of it.

Desperate to find evidence of the intrusion, she left wet footprints all over the floor as she inspected her belongings. Nothing was touched or taken. The nutcracker she hadn't noticed before could have been on her reading table the whole time; she hadn't audited the disposable knick-knacks that came with the accommodation.

"Ah hah!"

Tanya beamed at a set of white clothes. The clothes looked a lot like what kitchen staff would wear if they were in their early teens. Albeit the delivery method–barging in at night unannounced–left much to be desired, it related to her upcoming activities and, therefore, must have been authorised by none other than the madman-in-charge, Professor Schugel.

It may have even been referred to in fine print somewhere on her itinerary, too. Tanya pulled at her hair in frustration when she recalled leaving the envelope in the bathroom. Sure enough, turning the lights on revealed a soggy piece of paper floating in bathwater.

Grumbling at her own avoidable mistakes, she picked it up in hopes of finding anything legible. She discerned two words at the bottom: "Deus vult."

The rest of the page was populated by wet wing-dings. She couldn't make anything out of them. Once she glimpsed at the bottom again, the two words were but a blob of ink that left a stain on her fingertips. Her itinerary belonged in the bin.

Tanya bashed her head against the wall after glancing at the mess she made all over the bathroom. Suds crept down the walls to the copious amount of water on the floor. Anyone witnessing the chaos would question her sense of reason, which meant that she'd have to clean it up ASAP.

She started by removing the towel and hopping right back in the bathtub. She wasn't done, anyway.

Experience had a hefty price tag and Tanya imagined she was on an accelerated course of how not to make a fool of oneself. Next time the enemy tried to pull a fast one, she'd be ready for them. While carrying a gun into the bathroom sounded awfully uncivilised, a knife would go _swimmingly_.

Tanya bubbled at another successful pun. She finished up with a thorough wash and took care of the excess water on the floor after drying herself.

A cloud of steam poofed out when she exited the bathroom. It was a relief.

Her hair needed some work to be manageable in the morning, but that didn't stop her from putting on the flowing pyjamas. She bit her lower lip as she tended to the last potential calamity of the day, the wet operation orb. Tanya dried the device to the best of her ability, but it was challenging enough to start focusing without being constantly reminded in the back of her head about the risk of a lethal malfunction. Paranoia was a double-edged sword.

With the orb tucked under the covers, Tanya held it in one hand while both eyes scanned for possible evacuation routes in case of an explosion. If all hell broke loose, she was better off as the first person to leave the facility than the first to make the ultimate sacrifice. A hero would have done the opposite, but for every hero with a past, there was a risk management specialist with a future. Calling them cowards would have oversimplified her situation.

The segue helped sideline her paranoia. By the time Tanya visualised her end in an isolated segment of her mind, the orb was already activated, gleaming warmly in her palm. No one would learn about the mishap and she would continue to find creative uses for her gear.

"Testing goes both ways, Schugel."

She fell asleep smiling. After completing her evening ritual, she thought about convenient ways to keep the orb safe throughout the night. It had to be on her person, but the usual placement around the neck would leave marks and cause pain when turning. She also wanted to keep it at a distance from any important internal organs, so the arms were a no-go. Accidentally rubbing one's eyes with a metal thing attached could easily result in a shiner, too.

Tanya had settled for the ankle before exhaustion took hold. When she drifted off to sleep, only a dim reddish hue peering from under the sheets hinted at the operation orb's location.

A standard operation orb activating in one's sleep was a non-issue, but Tanya had something much more powerful at her disposal. In her blissful ignorance, she volunteered for an unintended equipment test.

Signs of trouble brewing in the real world dripped into her dream.

* * *

She was alone, drifting in an ocean under a crimson sky. A giant silhouette high in the heavens observed her struggles to remain on the surface. Tanya knew who it was and what it was doing: mocking her. The towering evil treated the illusory world like a snow globe, in which Tanya was the one snowflake that refused to fall in line.

Invariably, she would sink. Her mind would continue fighting, but her body would reach its limit. There was no salvation in a world governed by Existence X. There was nothing for her in this world. She was alone.

The harder she tried to keep her head above the water, the heavier the weight around her ankle became. She looked down in hopes of untying it and gaped in horror at what she saw underwater: everyone she had ever met. They were all dead.

Eyes open wide and faces contorted into smile-like grimaces, they foreshadowed her fate in the depths if she didn't remove the weight she had thoughtlessly attached to herself. The operation orb around her ankle glowed bright and hot, to the point that it appeared to have melted into her flesh; the chain was gone.

Try as she might, it wouldn't come off. Her gloves singed when she clutched the operation orb and her leg lit up in pain as soon as she pulled. Desperate to remove the orb, Tanya considered self-amputation, but the spell she wanted to prepare fizzled out.

All of her mana flowed to the operation orb, acting as a leech intend to bleed her dry. She realised that the real weight of the operation orb had never increased. It was an illusion cast by her fatigue.

Most of her body had already gone underwater, leaving just her teary-eyed, abuse-spouting face above the water.

Existence X staring at her from the heavens was pleased with this. Soon she would join the rest of the flock, unable to resist in death's grasp.

Water flowed down her throat as Tanya continued losing strength. She gasped for air, yet it only made the situation worse once she submerged whole. Panic over the inevitable filled her mind. She thrashed violently, her arm raised to the crimson sky. As her final act of defiance, she made an offensive gesture with her fingers until the world around her became dark and silent. She was denied reincarnation.

* * *

Then, she woke up.

Tanya shot up, panting as she reached for her rifle and scanned the surroundings. Her eyes were too sleepy to make out more than the blurred outlines of her dark room, but it was enough to dampen her heartbeat.

She threw the rifle away and pulled the cover off. The intensity of the light and heat emanating from the operation orb meant that it was running for a long time. Tanya bared her teeth as if about to lash out and removed the operation orb.

The crimson light wouldn't die, so Tanya crawled to the far corner of her bed and stared at it. She fought the urge to smash it to bits among other irrational impulses as her mental capacity returned to normal.

Fear had gotten the upper hand, she concluded. She should have never left a mind-shattering orb on her person unchecked. The spy would have had to be stupid to try to take it from her at night when she was the most vulnerable to its effect.

Tanya stuffed the operation orb in a bedside drawer before shambling to the bathroom. Her bladder was full and it could have been the cause of her nightmare, along with sheets that were too warm in conjunction with her pyjamas.

She put the rifle where it belonged on her way back to bed. By that time she was positive that the nightmare had a physical origination, an effective way for her body to wake her up and get rid of the source of discomfort. Still, she couldn't help reading into the imagery offered by her subconscious.

It was an unlikely convenience that she would be compatible with the most powerful operation orb known to man. In a world that held magic, which it did not fully understand, in high regard, no less…


	22. Whimsy before the Storm

Sunrise wouldn't come soon enough.

Tanya grumbled at her vivid imagination for producing one nightmare after another. Exhaustion colluded with her comfortable bed to guarantee she wouldn't get a lucid dream she could bend her way. The moment she would think she could steer the imagery, it sprang her back into the waking world in cold sweat.

She may have screamed at least once. There were things a little girl had little control of and, given her line of work, psychological traumas were bound to penetrate her thick outer shell sooner or later. Tanya expected her sanity to outlast the war, in part due to her rational demeanour that empathy was alien to. Still, she couldn't help feeling bad for herself. She had the power to raze a city, and yet she had fallen victim to the convoluted process of dream creation.

Each dream, as terrible as it was, had an easy-to-explain cause. Be it a schedule packed with dangerous experiments, the troublesome interactions with Professor Schugel or even an uncomfortable sleeping pose, her dreams reflected a constant search for the optimal solution and hitting many dead ends in the process.

The subconscious wasn't good at heuristics. One would have to be experiencing a lucid dream to even try it. When a loud boom woke her up, though, the first thing she assumed was a pulsejet flyby, not an enemy attack.

She was right. Advancing the testing regimen until the investigation team's arrival must have made sense in Professor Schugel's twisted mind. Robbing innocent soldiers of their sleep should have been a crime, as it sacrificed long-term productivity for minor gains.

Tanya had to get up around this time to present herself in the kitchen and get on with her punishment. The other soldiers were probably less impressed with the backhanded early wakeup call.

Out on the front, one had to get used to inconveniences like working without regular meals or rest, and getting shot at all the while. The thought that an enemy could be preying around the corner enabled the heightened alertness reserved for life-or-death situations. Professor Schugel had outdone himself in bringing the visceral feel of the front to the testing facility.

From Tanya's perspective, he struck the same nerve as Existence X. The enemy spy who had infiltrated the facility was a minor threat compared to those two because, unlike them, she knew how to effectively deal with an enemy combatant. She could even re-enact her nightmare scenarios on the spy after exposing him.

Overcoming the spy's inferior operation orb to then emulate the drowning sensation with a spell could be considered a non-lethal takedown. Ethicists had no problem with non-lethal takedowns, which were entirely different from torture. She made a mental note not to torture the spy after he received the Prisoner of War status.

This put Tanya in a good mood, prompting her to get up to start her morning routine.

Her whimsy lasted until the first step that nearly had her kissing the floor. Tanya's ankle had made a bony sound, jerking her off balance.

"What the…"

It was the one she had wrapped the Type 95B operation orb around. Tanya carefully inspected the leg for any damage. The chain had been a little too tight, so it left scratch marks. Nothing to worry about; a restorative spell would fix any discomfort.

A puffy swollen mark the size of the operation orb's jewel was a different matter. The blister in the middle didn't hurt, but the swollen skin around it seemed particularly sensitive to the touch. A field medic would have baulked at the swelling and merely told her to suck it up like a proper soldier. Discussing it with the on-site medics was bound to reach Professor Schugel's ear and cause all sorts of awkward questions.

She had made a bad call and the consequences were hers to deal with alone. Whatever it was that the operation orb had done to her ankle, it ignored restoration magic. Putting the culprit back on to supercharge her natural casting abilities was out of the question. Tanya promised herself it would not touch her skin again.

It wouldn't have surprised her if the operation orb was made with toxic materials.

Regardless, she would get to verify her assumption in a matter of hours. Professor Schugel had sounded excited about the so-called field trip to the Elinium Factory. On the surface, it looked like an improvised attempt at keeping her away from the team investigating yesterday's murder, but Tanya had already conditioned herself to prepare for trouble while Professor Schugel was the one pulling the strings. Having him booted from the facility would have made her life so much easier.

Tanya sighed, longing for a commanding officer with at least basic understanding of human resource management. If the military didn't have any checks and balances for Professor Schugel's work, he would have put a serious dent in the local population's life expectancy.

Wishful thinking had to wait until she had sufficient data on hand to complain about him without implicating herself in the process. The way Professor Schugel went about sensitive matters made him a difficult operator. It also explained how he managed to hold on to his position as Acting Facility Manager despite being a civilian. The title implied that he received the position due to a clause in the testing facility's by-laws and did not go through the standard hiring procedure.

Public entities had the habit of failing to go through the often intricate hiring procedures for top management and this deficiency was not unique to the Federation. Public sector jobs came with modest salaries, but positions with executive power allowed one to wield political influence. For this reason, it was practical to avoid the risk of hiring a politically unacceptable if highly qualified executive by skipping the hassle and just appointing a temporary or acting manager. Albeit Tanya understood the rationale behind this process, she did not agree with it on principle. If the supposed meritocracy allowed madmen to reach the top, there was something wrong with the system.

Tanya finished with her morning routine on auto-pilot and took a closer look at her kitchen uniform. Other than the hair net, which was supposed to replace her hat, it went on top of her regular uniform. Tanya looked at herself in the mirror and figured that she was missing some blood stains and a knife to complete the image of a butcher.

She hesitated to get to the last pressing matter before leaving her room.

Reaching into a drawer, she found the operation orb deactivated. It was a relief.

The hard part came next. If a few hours of close contact caused a skin condition, she had to be careful with putting it on because it was likely to stay on her throughout the day. She wasn't happy about the prospect of having her chest swell up with blisters.

The operation orb activated at the first touch, front-running her mind segmentation exercise. She had gotten used to the constant effort of making this one behave, the motions she had to go through in her head reduced to automation that dissolved in background noise. Tanya was a quick learner when her life was on the line.

* * *

Out in the morning sun, Tanya exchanged pleasantries with the night guard, counting minutes until the end of his shift. He didn't notice anything suspicious throughout the night, an admission that further calmed her mind.

The few people she saw on her way to the mess hall were a good reflection of the early hour. Even the sun seemed susceptible to their lazy postures and the occasional yawn as it crept up to shed another inch off their shadows, slinking on the ground. Ideal workers would have performed well with or without supervision, but one didn't get to choose one's company in the military and Tanya was not in a position to complain. Not yet, at least.

She took a moment to compose herself before going in through the small staff-only entrance. The racket coming from the inside meant that everyone was already hard at work.

They were too preoccupied to notice her enter and didn't bat an eyelash when she loudly introduced herself. The treatment disheartened Tanya, but she refused to let her indignation show.

Eventually, a portly mustachio cook approached her with a clipboard and pen. He handed both to her.

"Eh?"

The cook raised a brow at her reaction. "Don't tell me. You're new… Just put your Tanya Degurechaff on the dotted line and don't come back until breakfast time. I've no clue why they sent you instead of the safety crew…"

"Well, I am the official breakfast inspector."

He chuckled at Tanya's earnest response. "Sure, you are. Let's go, then."

Tanya wasn't hungry, but she really wanted to bite that cook. She realised Professor Schugel could have done this to her as a joke and the disdain she got to endure reinforced this suspicion. Still, she couldn't treat the paperwork she was given lightly. If there was anything wrong with breakfast ingredients and she failed to disclose it, her head would be the first to roll.

"I assume this is not the standard procedure."

"You what-now?" He scooped up some flour from a huge bag and raised a loose fist, letting the flour seep back out. "Little girl, if you find anything off about our ingredients, I'll give you a slice of the flan cake I'm baking for the officers."

Her eyes flashed menacingly. She wasn't intending for it to happen; the cook just made a colossal blunder by doubling her motivation to prove him wrong.

It took Tanya seconds to scan every ingredient reserved for breakfast and she would have immediately voiced her conclusion had the cook not insisted on bragging about the quality of every item, from apples to zucchini. As expected from a cook, he knew a lot about food. Knowledge didn't excuse his arrogance or contempt for Tanya, though.

Safety crew members treated morning inspections as a needless formality, as did the kitchen staff, so anyone with a different mindset would have been subjected to peer pressure. Unbeknownst to her chaperon, Tanya was an expert in peer pressure and her new responsibility gave her a way to push back.

Tanya interrupted the cook's tirade and pointed at a bag of roasted coffee beans, "I don't like the vibe this coffee is giving me." She demonstratively licked the tip of the pen and proceeded to scribble.

The cook fidgeted nervously at the prospects of a formality turning into a problem he would have to take responsibility for. "No-no-no! Please, keep this off the record. The coffee can't be bad!"

She ignored the peculiar request and lowered her head to take a whiff of the coffee up close. Tanya had to close her eyes to suppress the tears at its beautiful intensity. The vibe it was giving off was unforgivable: the coffee was stuck in a bag, surrounded by bland produce, instead of being served as a drink in Tanya's personal mug.

"Please, little girl!"

Tanya raised her head and stared at the cook from the corner of her eye. "'Little girl'?"

Seeing coffee beans rise up from the bag and pop into powder before being mixed with hot water in a levitating cup dishevelled the cook. Tanya was going to complain about him.

"Second Lieutenant Degurechaff, I beg you! We were supposed to throw it all away and serve coffee substitute after what happened yesterday. Coffee couldn't have been the cause of the food poisoning. Take pity on the morning shift!"

Tanya took the cup to her lips and listened to the grovelling. It had a soothing tone that cried retribution, which went well with the first-rate brew. More importantly, Tanya didn't know that they were supposed to get rid of the coffee and the false justification they had been given implied they didn't know any better themselves.

"You can let this go, can you? The next shipment isn't due for another month…"

Getting involved further was pointless. The cook had unwittingly admitted that the higher-ups in charge of supplies were kept in the dark about the coffee situation. Tanya didn't like the potential repercussions of such behaviour on the well-being of everyone at the facility.

She handed him the inspection form, complete with scathing commentary and signature.

He wailed after glancing at the notes, having spotted the word "rotten" among them.

"Why, Second Lieutenant? What did the coffee do to deserve this? I will raise a dispute!"

Tanya took another sip. The man in front of her was akin to a sinking ship on fire–hopeless. He would have been unable to dispute her conclusions about the coffee because there was supposed to be no coffee, and it would have been odd to try proving it didn't exist as long as she had a cup of it in her hand. It was delicious coffee, after all.

"My remarks are about the rotten potatoes I've sensed, not the coffee." She motioned at a few tubers that she had levitated away from the rest. They were visibly inedible. "Kitchen staff rush so much they can't even read the whole review. No wonder my soufflé fell flat the other day."

"I'll go get your cake, Second Lieutenant. The kitchen is in your debt."

Tanya left the staff-only area grinning. A model soldier probably wouldn't have exploited her early morning punishment to munch on unsanctioned coffee and flan, but Tanya wasn't a model soldier. She was better, and now the testing facility's kitchen owed her a favour.


	23. Field Trip

A vivid explosion challenged the sun for attention above the testing facility. Another pulsejet had met its end, only this time a long shadow descended beside the wreckage.

Tanya was equally surprised to see that the aircraft had a pilot and that the pilot survived. It didn't stop her from envying the relative safety of flying such a machine. Tanya's involvement was limited to testing small wearable devices–operation orbs–that routinely made craters much bigger than anything a supersonic plane crash could muster.

The orb Professor Schugel entrusted her with, the so-called Elinium Type 95B had the capacity to level the whole facility and two nearby towns. Tanya considered it second-worst: more difficult to operate than the single-core Type 95A, less maddening than the unfettered Type 95X.

She did her best to conceal the device from everyone to avoid questions about carrying it outside a sanctioned testing environment and to complete Professor Schugel's challenge. The part that troubled her now wasn't that she would be exposed; after managing to conceal it in the presence of various detectors, the possibility of it happening was nil. The enemy spy Mage who assassinated the administrative building's guard and remained at large didn't bother her much, either. Her mind couldn't wrap itself around the idea that the orb recorded data about her actions. Since using it required maintaining constant mind segmentation and a stream of intuition-driven thoughts, Tanya wasn't sure how much privacy she had left. If Professor Schugel found out about her true goals, she would probably have to weigh her punishment against the swiftness of a firing squad.

Thankfully, science in this world had a poor grasp of semiconductors, which severely limited the amount of data the operation orb could store.

Tanya shook her head when she realised she was glad about this world being backwards. Resources that could have been dedicated to physics or chemistry were diverted to the study of magic, an innately unscientific discipline. A hydrogen bomb, once detonated, left little to chance. The subtlety of magic and prerequisites for spell casting, however, relied on the metaphysical. Religion thrived in such ambiguity.

This world and the cook that had given Tanya cake had a lot in common.

"A sinking ship that's on fire…" she mused.

A Military Police vehicle drove by. The MP in the passenger's seat pointed at her, prompting the driver to stop. Both got out and approached her.

She recognised them. They were the same servicemen who met her at the Klusross train station two days ago. Like last time, the exchange started with salutes.

Tanya responded in kind. She took it as a good sign because the investigation team was unlikely to be as gracious, nor would it consist of locals.

"Item Tanya Degurechaff, quantity one?"

"Yes?" she blurted out after hearing her name. She didn't quite understand what the rest was about.

The MPs nodded to each other and took a step forward. They were getting into her personal space, but Tanya stood her ground, having seen through their intimidation tactic.

"You are to be delivered to the Elinium Factory. Please, do not make any sudden movements."

They moved in to surround her. Tanya was half-expecting handcuffs to come next.

When one of them pulled out a sheet of paper and looked at her as if about to pass judgment, Tanya felt weak in the knees at the thought that she was right. Were they going to read her rights as a suspect? What was she suspected of? Every question that followed brought her to a more dismal conclusion and she started considering resisting arrest until she realised that it was all still in her head.

Tanya folded her arms and glared at the MP with the sheet. "On whose orders?"

"Engineering Director's, ma'am," the one on the opposite side said.

Her heart sank at the revelation. Professor Schugel chose to hand her to the investigators, after all. That scheming good-for-nothing went for the easy solution: eliminate the loose end that would have given him the most trouble. She did not expect such an outcome. Without meaning to, she had placed too much trust in him.

Seeing that Tanya was standing perfectly still, which adhered to the request of her not making any sudden movements, the MP started reading aloud, "Item Tanya Degurechaff, as a weapon of mass destruction, is to be treated with utmost care and kindness at all times to ensure the well-being of equipment and personnel. Item Tanya Degurechaff runs on a multitude of carbon-based fuels that resemble chocolates, bonbons and cakes. Ensure hydration and timely waste disposal of Item Tanya Degurechaff during transit. Do not, under any circumstances, subject Item Tanya Degurechaff to stress or objectionable material. Do not engage with Item Tanya Degurechaff. Do not let Item Tanya Degurechaff find out she is Item Tanya Degurechaff…erm," the MP's voice trailed off in the end and he glanced at his partner. "Goods received."

Tanya was too dumbstruck to register the insults the MPs exchanged afterwards. When she woke up from the thoughtless trance, she realised that one of them had opened the door to the vehicle while the other was holding her hand to guide her inside. They were treating her like a princess, not a convict.

"This way, Second Lieutenant. A dry, cool place."

She was about to raise her voice to object to the odd treatment when she saw what awaited her in the car: an open briefcase filled with an assortment of sweets and pastries, neatly collated in both compartments.

 _Mine!_

Tanya decided to lunge first and ask questions later. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but she would have gone for it even if somebody had told her they were out to kidnap her; she had an operation orb that could blow both kidnappers to bits, anyway.

The door closed right behind her and she disappeared from sight behind the dark tinted window.

"One unit of Item Tanya Degurechaff. Check… Wasn't there a longer second manifest?" she overheard the MP's whisper.

"That's none of our concern."

Inside the car, Tanya gawked at the treats destined to keep her company for a short while. Only her exceptional willpower was stopping her from pigging out there and then. She had to be classy about it.

She took one piece of chocolate, removed the silvery wrapper and pressed it past her pursed lips to let the sweetness melt in her mouth. As fun as that was, she wanted more and she needed it to come faster, so she picked up a bunch of sweets and opened wide.

It was a classy start. Now she could get down to business.

 _Kukuku._

The MPs joined her in the car, their presence interrupting her moment of weakness. Tanya's cheeks, puffy from the amount of sweets she greedily stuffed in her mouth, turned pink at the stares she got. Chocolate left a trail going down to her chin as it melted.

She swallowed everything and grinned as innocently as she could in her current situation. The MPs said nothing, preferring to just hand her a handkerchief.

The car drove forward.

Professor Schugel had promised her a field trip and did he deliver. A private ride with a chauffeur and entertainment were luxuries unheard of in the military at a time of war. The generosity pleased her sense of self-worth so much that she became suspicious of his motive.

Handing her to a pair of locals, who seemed knowledgeable in the way things were run at the facility, if not much else, meant that a level of trust was involved. The idea of Professor Schugel trusting anyone but himself didn't sit well with Tanya. It was easier to believe that he found the MPs simply dumb enough to carry out an order by classifying Tanya as a unit of cargo.

She wanted to be mad at him for literally objectifying her, but getting her out of the facility in time would have involved going through some bureaucratic hoops. The guards manning checkpoints leading up to the testing facility were less likely to ask questions if the MPs' stated purpose was cargo delivery. Any reasonable guard would have let them pass ASAP to put as much distance between him and the terrible weapon of mass destruction hidden in the vehicle.

Tanya relished her image as a weapon of mass destruction. Her power could split mountains, burn cities and leave unwashable chocolate stains. Thinking about the last part, Tanya considered reining in her appetite, which gained traction after the first few sweets.

She distracted herself from the urge by observing the escalating commotion in the testing facility as the car slowly drove towards the exit gate.

A line of vehicles, some of them prison cars, caught her attention. All except one had clear Military Police markings. The odd one appeared to belong to the Intelligence Bureau. The investigation team has arrived.

The investigators acted unapologetically, treating any opposition from facility staff with overwhelming brutality. A soldier refusing to fall in line was clubbed to submission. They made an example of him, an effective example at that: whoever saw the beating rushed to a section of the road next to the living quarters where stone-faced men dressed in black were rounding everyone up.

MPs held the monopoly on using force and exercised it on whomever the agents from the Intelligence Bureau pointed at. The scene resembled an enemy raid rather than a criminal investigation. Either the brass overreacted to the incident report submitted by Professor Schugel's assistant or someone was holding a grudge against the testing facility. As events continued to unfold before her eyes, she found herself leaning towards the latter scenario.

Tanya gaped at an improbable sight of the said assistant treading together with the safety crew Mages, all handcuffed. A group of heavily armed MPs moved alongside them towards an open prison car. Tanya shuddered at the prospect of joining them and made sure to hold her distance from the window, lest she would spark the investigation team's interest.

Professor Schugel had mentioned that he intended to sacrifice the safety crew, the only personnel besides Tanya known to have a magic signature. It didn't make sense for his assistant to join them in the prison car. He was a total civilian, a spineless lackey who'd never rebel against his boss.

She jumped to the window when she saw the assistant assume a running posture and try to flee from the scene. He was immediately shot in the leg for his act of defiance, which Tanya considered more suicidal than stupid. The last Tanya saw of him was a bleeding face pressed against the pavement, a cocked gun held to the back of his head.

Tanya slid down in her seat, having lost her appetite, and just stared blankly as the car approached the security outpost by the exit gate. An agent from the Intelligence Bureau stood in the way. He refused to move until the driver turned the engine off.

The driver opened his window to hand in the clearance papers, but the agent didn't even look at them and ordered him to exit the vehicle. The investigators were on to the charade. All of a sudden, the field trip Professor Schugel had promised Tanya took on a new meaning.

 _I'm too young to go to prison…_


	24. Elenium

Tanya peeked from behind the driver's seat to check on the progress. They've been talking inside the security outpost for ten minutes and the only giveaway of how things were going was the Intelligence Bureau agent's deepening scowl.

Other people were also getting frustrated with the impasse. A military truck had driven up behind the car Tanya sat in. The truck's horn, blown over and over, gave Tanya a headache. It wasn't her fault that the Intelligence Bureau has seen through Professor Schugel's ruse. A little girl hardly looked like the weapon of mass destruction she was designated as in the cargo manifest. In fact, she would have feared for her own safety if it were this easy to fool the Intelligence Bureau.

Now that she was facing the prospect of incarceration, though, the point was moot. Appearing as a suspect in a murder trial would be enough to cripple her military career.

The truck behind her honked again before a person hopped out of the rear and marched towards the security outpost.

 _Speak of the devil…_

Professor Schugel had been sitting in the truck and he did not look happy about the delay. He went past the guards and motioned at the MP trying to get Tanya through. The MP left the outpost, having apparently been ordered to get out, and watched Professor Schugel resolve the impasse.

The windows vibrated from the shouting match that ensued. Professor Schugel had an explosive temper that didn't take long to dishevel the stone-faced agent. Both gestured aggressively, taking turns to waggle a finger threateningly at the sky or point at Tanya. Eventually, Professor Schugel's face started turning purple while the agent went pale.

Tanya's driver was invited back inside. This time, the agent took a careful look at the documentation. Professor Schugel continued shouting in the background until Tanya was cleared to pass. She had no clue what persuaded the agent to change his mind. It couldn't have been Professor Schugel's outburst because he had no authority over the Intelligence Bureau. His input was limited to getting the agent to look into the case rather than dismiss it outright.

It had to be something about the paperwork the MP was carrying because he had a similar reaction to the agent as he read it on his way back to the car. Tanya would have killed to have a look at it. Perhaps, this was why the MP guarded it with his life.

The gate opened, letting them pass.

Neither MP said anything of the incident. It hadn't gone according to plan–that much was obvious–but other than a worried glance, Tanya had little to work with.

There she was, leaving the facility she has been yearning to get out of. She would have imagined the happening warranted boisterous cheers. Reality came to disappoint: her departure was as low-key as her arrival.

Checkpoint after checkpoint, they encountered guards who rushed to let them through and took cover until the car drove out of sight. These people knew something the driver appeared to have learnt moments ago: Tanya's designation as a weapon of mass destruction was no joke. Whether they identified the little girl sitting in the rear as such was a red herring. All that mattered to them was that something inside the car posed extreme danger.

The driver took caution on the countryside road, even letting the truck that Tanya had seen at the gate pass. It made for a smooth ride for Tanya, who returned to eyeing her briefcase filled with treats after getting bored of the monotonous farmland view.

Munching on a creampuff, she struggled to piece together the events leading up to her current predicament. An undercover enemy spy with an affinity for magic had infiltrated the testing facility and made an attempt on Tanya's life by placing a poison spell on her coffee. The spy botched it because the spell attached itself to all the coffee in the building Tanya was in, leading to another soldier's death and an investigation. Professor Schugel was reluctant about reporting it due to the delays it would have likely caused to his schedule and he was right. While he was ready to accept losing the safety crew charged with protecting personnel from magic gone out of control, the beatings that Tanya had witnessed showed how easily a crisis could escalate.

Tanya felt particularly troubled by the apparent death of Professor Schugel's assistant. She acknowledged that _Schugel_ was a clever man, who survived being churned through the unsavoury innards of a government bureaucracy. Anyone working directly under him must have passed a rigorous screening. In Tanya's case, it entailed barbed conversations during several near-death experiences.

She swallowed bitterly as she dwelled on that thought. One potentially lethal test wasn't enough for Schugel to see her worth.

His assistant should have persevered after being placed under an equivalent load. The title suggested that the role exceeded an adjutant's normal responsibilities, adding the requirement of a scientific background. Such credentials precluded stupidity and suicidal tendencies.

Stress, a by-product of being around Schugel, had a negative long-term effect, yes, but for the breakdown to occur so spectacularly during a decisive moment, one would have to be in a peculiar state of mind. Nothing about the assistant pointed to a peculiar state of mind and Tanya had great confidence in this assessment.

Running would have made sense only if the assistant was the enemy spy. Then again, an enemy crafty enough to cast poison magic would have found a way to cause more collateral damage in his final moments. He didn't even need to provoke a fatal gunshot to avoid landing in an interrogation room. A self-destruction spell would have done the trick.

Tanya held on to the assumption of rationality throughout her mental meandering. There was no way the actors behaved without premeditation. This led Tanya to the conclusion that things were not as they appeared to be. Somewhere along her train of thought she has made a mistake. Going through the rest of her default assumptions, she figured that rejecting any of them would seriously complicate the logistics of putting together a coherent picture.

Too much was at stake to dismiss the issue and Tanya was livid to admit that the best she could do for now was put it in limbo. The missing information would appear sooner or later. Professor Schugel would come round to torment her and the spy wouldn't rest until his job was done.

At least the MPs accompanying her on the ride to the Elinium Factory weren't involved. She could afford to relax and enjoy herself without fear of repercussions.

The road took them to a small town situated in a valley. The sign on the roadside read "Elin", but some vandals had messily painted "Elen" over the original text. Tanya hadn't encountered such vandalism before. Martial law dissuaded most adventurous youths.

"Elen?"

"That's what they call it in the local dialect. The town's official name is Elin," the MP in the passenger's seat explained.

For a town that greeted visitors with disregard for public order, Elin lacked the usual giveaways of social unrest. Clean streets, old yet tidy dwellings and little noise–the town resembled the idyll of pre-war life in the Empire.

"Looks peaceful."

The driver turned his attention to Tanya after a pause. "Looks are…not always right."

As the car drove further down into the town, Tanya started to see the meaning behind the driver's words. The peace and quiet were that of a community in decline. The locals did their best to conserve what they had, but the battle was theirs to lose. The war in the North had taken more than the rowdy troublemakers. It had taken the town's future.

Even worse was what the war gave them in return.

There were no children in the streets, and the few passers-by near the town square had the air of indifference to the world around them. Tanya eventually realised she would have to turn a blind eye on much of Elin to avoid reaching a dreadful conclusion. From the sick trees coated in ashen rosette lichen to the residents wearing cloths on their pale, exhausted faces, everything pointed to an environmental disaster in progress.

Shut windows and doors, a school closed indefinitely behind a rusted padlock and an intensifying foul smell fed her suspicions until the car turned to head out of the valley, letting Tanya finally see the culprit. A dense blanket of smog rolled down into the inhabited area. Such was the price of industrial advancement.

They had to be close to the destination.

"Is that smog from the factory?"

"The mine. It put the town on the map."

When the car slowed down ahead of a fork in the road, Tanya noticed a sign: one route was labelled as "Elinium Factory" while the other read "Elin Mine." The mine was within walking distance of the town.

"What are they mining?"

The driver turned towards Tanya and said, "God knows… It used to be coal. These days…God knows, and it's causing, well, what you see."

"Those working in the mine avoid conscription, and the pay is good. Much better than in the Military Police," the MP in the passenger's seat added.

Was that regret that Tanya heard in the MP's voice? A mining job certainly had its drawbacks because it involved backbreaking physical labour, but miners weren't preyed upon by foreign soldiers fulfilling their own patriotic duty. The miners' lives still mattered because they, knowingly or otherwise, fuelled the Imperial war effort. Compensation was proof of how much the country appreciated their work and it sounded like they were appreciated a lot.

"Doesn't look fair, does it?" Tanya asked. She phrased herself in a way that avoided suspicion while appealing to the MPs' self-worth.

"The Engineering Director loves that place. You'll get a tour if you ask him."

"Better yet, don't. It's haunted. Or cursed. Maybe both."

"Eh?" Albeit pursuing the topic further could have triggered a flag, Tanya was sceptical about the supernatural. Mining in this era entailed a number of environmental hazards that the workers had no clue about. Attributing any effects of those hazards to an ancient curse was a matter of ignorant convenience.

"Flashes, noises, hallucinations…" the driver said in a whisper.

"And blisters the size of your fist. The mine either kills you or makes you insane."

Tanya opened her mouth to object, thinking the MPs were pulling her leg, but a sense of paranoia crawling in the back of her head dampened her indignation. There was something else Tanya encountered that caused blisters and had a terrifying effect on one's mind, and that thing was made of a material called elinium. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't force herself to dismiss it all as an uncanny coincidence. The blasted Elinium Type 95 operation orbs were somehow connected to what was going on in the mine.

Her lapse didn't go unnoticed. The MP in the passenger's seat was quietly observing her. To avoid uncomfortable questions, she decided to go ahead with her initial response even if it meant lying through her teeth.

"I don't believe it."

"It's best you don't see it, then," said the driver. Tanya ignored the religious reference.

"They couldn't find the body of the previous Mage who went in. The Engineering Director looked happy when he got back without a scratch, though."

If true, the implications of this were hard to ignore: the field trip supposed to save her from the investigation actually put her in more danger. She had assumed Professor Schugel's goodwill for a moment and came to repent for it. All he wanted was for her to commit to more tests no matter what. He had already shown willingness to skirt the law to get results and implicate her in the process.

"The Engineering Director doesn't put much value in others, huh?" she quipped despite the internal struggle. A lump was forming in her throat.

"Easy for a weapon of mass destruction to say."

A weapon of mass destruction commanded respect, only Tanya considered herself as being more than that. She was human. She would not allow a mad scientist to lead her to an untimely end to further his own insidious agenda. Nor would she be intimidated by two meatheads from the Military Police aiding him.

"I've disabled friendly fire, just so you know."

"We're not friends, Second Lieutenant, _just so you know_."

Tanya bobbed her head to the side and grinned at the red light peering from underneath her uniform.

 _Likewise_.


	25. Friendly Fire

The car shook violently as the driver fought to regain control. A series of loud booms accompanied by flashes in the sky made it hard to focus. The source moved too quickly to identify, but the chaos it left behind seemed familiar.

"What's hap-?"

"Eyes on the road!"

Veering at full speed to the side of the elevated road, the car was about to crash into a ditch. The driver glared at Tanya sitting in the back and got smacked up the back of his head by his colleague for not paying attention.

"If this is your doing, girl, I'll-"

"Brake! Stop the car!"

A jolt at the edge took the car airborne, hurtling towards the ditch. The MPs sitting at the front braced for impact, no seatbelt or safety device to soften the blow. The sea of crimson light that Tanya had filled the car with was about to materialise in blood.

While they shouted expletives, she channelled her mana to slow the car down to a crawl, resulting in barely a scratch on the bumper. The shaking, in the meantime, seemed to intensify. Leaves, bugs and other small objects picked up by the wind splattered across the windscreen as a dust cloud swept over the car. Tanya had experienced it before: the preamble to a deafening explosion. It was coming from the Elinium Factory's vicinity.

She put both hands in front of herself, ready to face the blast wave. Judging by the tremors it caused, she was in for another unintended equipment test. The sensitive Type 95 operation orb worked wonders for precise magic, but Tanya hadn't tested its defensive capabilities. She needed a barrier and it had to be as thick as the wall of a bunker to last.

Preparing for the task was gut-wrenching. Hastily segregating pieces of her mind to multi-task without fail caused physical pain that she could hardly manage while operating the orb. The magic stimulants she showered her body in to heighten her senses and sync up with the orb's four cores took a toll on her already diminishing ability to think rationally.

" _That_ was not me. This is. You better apologise."

Tanya left an unstable power vacuum inside by casting her strength outward. If she did not snap out of this state soon enough, her mind would shatter along with her body. The calculations she ran through the operation orb showed no other outcome.

 _The irony,_ she thought. _A weapon of mass destruction has to save the day_.

Exhaustion came in waves, as did the blast. Lethal pressure gave way to flashes, followed by a tide of flame. Whatever it was, it was causing a chain reaction and Tanya was the only one capable of defying it.

Even as her face grew pale from the strain, she was exhilarated inside about the opportunity to pit her abilities against a real threat. Unlike Schugel's purposelessly terrible tests, this was a challenge worth rising up to. The event had taken her by surprise, but now she revelled in the havoc extinguished by the might of her will. The explosion was no match for her.

 _I am the immovable object!_

The MPs couldn't decide whether to cover from the explosion causing ripples and cracks in the magical shield or the pale blond girl with crazy eyes. The overflow of agitated mana made it look like her pupils were swirling and sparking and, unlike the explosion, they represented madness by design. The sight struck fear as she focused back on them in wait.

"I'm not sure how long my power will hold," she said in an ominous tone. Tanya didn't want to waste mana on anyone unwilling to be saved, and an apology served as a good indication of willingness.

The driver crossed his arms and stared at the flickering lights caused by debris hitting the barrier. "I've nothing to apologise for to a freak like you."

She half-smiled at the response. Eager to test her skills and prove a point at the same time, she thinned the barrier down until debris started tapping at the windscreen. If another secondary explosion reached the car, it would be too late to boost the barrier to protect anyone but herself.

The passenger caved. He turned in his seat and lowered his head. "I'm sorry, Second Lieutenant. Please, be kind to us."

Tanya's smile melted away. As exciting as making grown men squirm for her protection was, she has had insufficient preparation to keep at it much longer without seriously hurting herself. Both arms put out in front, Tanya shifted to the right to position herself behind the passenger MP.

Seeing what it was leading up to, the passenger chastised his colleague, "Go on, logise-APO." The driver said nothing, so he appealed to Tanya again, "He's not himself today, Second Lieutenant. He's so sorry words fail him. Do you see how sorry he is?"

"If the devil kills me, I'll go straight to heaven."

A nervous tick broke past Tanya's composure at what she heard. She closed her eyes and lowered her head, shaking it disappointedly as she deliberated on the MP's motive. The corruption of Existence X was strong in him. She was sickened by how quickly he reached the state in which he was ready to sacrifice others for his own misguided benefit. It provided Tanya yet more proof about the evil nature of Existence X and religion by proxy.

"When you see Existence X, pass him this message for me." She showed him the middle finger and lowered her left hand, further weakening the barrier on that side.

"Bless you, devil!"

The explosion burst through the left side of the windscreen before the MP could finish his yell, surprising him at the last moment that it wasn't Tanya to land the finishing blow. A sharp piece of debris thrust itself in his open mouth together with broken glass and pebbles accelerated like bullets. He was decapitated in the blink of an eye.

Tanya raised the barrier in full as soon as his head knocked a hole in the rear window. The explosions died down seconds later. She was victorious.

When the coast was clear, she didn't have the energy to gloat or consider what she has just done. Her arms flopped down as she breathed heavily.

The remaining MP stared at her wide-eyed, still recovering from the shock of being saved by a little girl.

She clicked her dry lips. "I don't feel so good." The lump in her throat kept getting worse and she had an idea of what could be coming next.

The MP scuttled to get her out of the car. She was too weak to walk on her own, so he helped her go behind a burning bush, where she could have some privacy. The gagging and regurgitation sounds didn't concern him at all. Any kid would have felt sick after pigging out on that many sweets. The physical strain and stress she had to overcome to withstand the explosion must have been too much for her to stomach in that state. It would have been more troublesome had it happened while she was projecting the barrier.

He lit up a cigarette on a burning branch as he waited for Tanya to stop vomiting. The fact there was a dead MP in the car didn't seem to concern him. The fires and smoke spread across the rural landscape were likely to cause more casualties.

"Khu. Why did I not see this happening…" Tanya grumbled, sitting in front of a puddle of her own sick. The sweets looked much more appetising before she had eaten them.

The MP came up to her with another handkerchief.

She looked at it dismissively, pulled out the one she was given at the start of the trip and wiped the remaining gunk off of her face. "Thanks."

"You saved my life! How will I repay you?"

Tanya handed him the soiled handkerchief as she limped past him. "Can you drive?"

He nodded, happy to see such a low price named for his salvation. He wasn't as happy when he saw what ended up in his hand, though.

Continuing the mission was easier said than done because he had to dispose of his colleague's body. It had started leaking while they were preoccupied, so taking over at the wheel neither looked nor smelled like a pleasant experience. On top of that, the MP had to pilfer his colleague's bloodied uniform to retrieve the papers outlining the assignment. Without the documents they would be turned away at the first security checkpoint.

Tanya watched him labour over the deceased comrade. Dead bodies often appeared heavier than their living counterparts and work had the tendency to slow down as soon as the dead were introduced.

She could have helped. Annihilating the body and any stains it left behind was easy, but the MP deserved a lesson in humility for making fun of her earlier. Besides, she was curious of how a regular MP coped with the loss of a comrade. As stupid as that comrade was, spouting nonsense about going to heaven, he deserved a proper burial. It was military tradition.

The MP instead opted for leaving the headless body in the ditch. Tanya nearly burst out laughing when she saw that. It was poetic justice for a true fan of Existence X to be denied the rites. She acknowledged that it was improper for her to find the MP's misconduct humorous, but her relationship with Existence X superseded any obligations she had to the military. The MP acted on his own initiative, so her hands were clean.

The one favour she committed to in the end was piecing together the broken windscreen. The MP acted like he had never seen a Mage in action before.

"Second Lieutenant, you are amazing!"

It wasn't flattery because it was true, yet Tanya also remembered the less cordial things she had heard from this MP, making her doubt his sincerity.

"If I wanted you to lick my boots, I would have said so. You're lucky I didn't feel like walking there."

She let the last bit sink in. Their situation was a force majeure and it would have been no surprise for the higher-ups to find the vehicle blown to pieces or on fire like much of their surroundings. In such dire straits, only a seasoned Aerial Mage, the bearer of the Silver Wings Assault Medal would make it out alive.

Tanya didn't need the car anymore, either: it was needed to discretely get her out of the testing facility. Taking flight would have been easier and it didn't involve the sickening smell she had to deal with.

The new driver was silent for a good minute on the increasingly bumpy road. They were definitely getting closer to the epicentre of the explosion.

"Umm, you realise that _there_ might be a change of plan?"

She had thought of that. Schugel's truck should have made it to the Elinium Factory before the explosion took place. If she were an optimist, she would have assumed that both were destroyed. Somehow, she was sure that the opposite applied.

"Since it's Schugel we're talking about, he must be alive and prepared to rack up the body count."

"It's you I owe my life to, Second Lieutenant, not him."

The impromptu admission piqued her interest. He sounded serious about it and Tanya wouldn't be Tanya if she didn't find a way to milk his sentiment for personal gain.

"Glad to hear that we understand each other."

"As long as I'm alive, you can consider me your colleague."

 _Not feeling friendly yet? I see._

He stood by what he had said before the explosion. Despite the shocking experience, the MP put a finite value on his gratitude for being saved. This simplified the matter in that his gratitude could be treated like a business transaction: he would give her more than the required minimum courtesy until his debt was repaid.

Referring to her as a colleague was the equivalent of a down payment. MPs held authority over soldiers, a relationship similar to that between regular police and civilians. The organisational structure of the Military Police was entirely independent from the military almost to the very top, where both connected under the Ministry of War. In essence, this MP relinquished his authority over Tanya, an unusual and potentially dangerous act that Tanya was sure to exploit.

"As long as you're alive, you can give me some water. I'm thirsty."

"Uhh, it should be-" He reached for the glove compartment, but was unable to open it quickly enough; he had to swerve off the road to evade a fallen tree.

Tanya took matters to her own hands by jumping to the passenger's seat in the front. "Got it!"

"Aren't you too young for this?"

She shrugged as she popped the cap and drank up. "Ah! I'm old enough to be a soldier…and one of Schugel's playthings."

"Please, Second Lieutenant. Don't say that!" He shuddered at what he imagined Tanya had meant. "You're not a plaything…"

Tanya expected pity to come next. She didn't want his pity. After all, he was providing her a service on behalf of Schugel, acting as a private chauffeur, despite ranking higher on the organisational chart.

"Oh? What does that make you? I don't see why the Military Police suddenly acts as one Engineering Director's errand boy."

"Our situation is different. You're more of a guinea pig and I… I used to work at the Elen coal mine before he came."

She meant to wound his pride and sink the knife deep to make him easier to deal with, but the MP demonstrated that his new status as her colleague implied they were on the same level; he pushed back when she wanted to place herself above him.

Even if she were a guinea pig, she took care not to let her tongue slip and the MP made a big mistake by picking up Elin's unofficial name favoured by local vandals.

"Elen?"

"Elin, sorry. When the brass discovered there was something more valuable then coal in there, they seized the mine and gave everyone a raise big enough to think about early retirement. This kind of news travels fast… You can imagine what happened next."

The discontent and clinging to the past were rooted in the locals' inability to compete with an influx of economic migrants. It was ironic for the mine that put the town on the map to decimate the indigenous population. The war merely fed into the issues that were already there.

In Tanya's book, the town got what was coming to it for failing to adapt. The government played a part in this by distorting the labour market with a wage increase, but the town would have been fine, had the locals provided a proportional increase in labour productivity.

"You dropped out of the competition…"

"I didn't want to compete. Elin used to be a peaceful mining town. It stopped being so when all these scientists came. Now it's just quiet. Since they figured that it's easier to haul in temporary workers from other territories than deal with the locals' worsening health, it will stay quiet."

The government's intervention had irreversible side effects. Normally, a salary increase for doing dangerous work would offset any healthcare costs for sustained injuries, but, if the MP was to be believed, the working population's health declined too much for the money to balance it out. The government then threw in the towel and let the problem solve itself by appealing to superstitions like hauntings and curses while the afflicted died.

Medical science in the Empire was not as advanced as Japan's and effective cures for most maladies were not yet developed. The militarised use of magic made it impossible for Mages to work in civilian roles, too. Tanya's own talents may have benefited the world better if she got the choice to become a doctor, but the Empire preferred sending Mages to the front.

Attributing the town's current state to laziness alone would have been a mistake. Laziness was there, Tanya was sure of it, but so was ignorance and the government's determination to get its way without regard for wasted human capital. It was natural to assume Schugel's involvement.

The MP continued, "The few that are still able to work do what it takes to make ends meet and any arrangements between the testing facility and the authorities are a part of that. People come and go, but everyone needs local knowledge."

"Local knowledge…"

Tanya levitated a creampuff out of her briefcase of goodies and wolfed it down as she pondered. A local who passed the training required to join the Military Police and a regular at Schugel's venues was sitting next to her. This roused Tanya's appetite for something other than creampuffs, information.

"Tell me. How did Schugel become a part of this picture?"


	26. Schugel-Krupp AG

"It's best you ask him."

"Schugel's not here, so I'm asking you."

Burning trees and ashen fields reflected off of Tanya's irises. If it weren't for her, the car and the MP driving it would have merged with this hell on earth. She would not have imagined that frontline entertainment would be served this close to the Imperial capital, an honest mistake she was willing to admit.

There was still a distance separating them from their destination, the Elinium Factory, but it was beginning to look like the explosion originated from there and the factory had been destroyed. Schugel has outdone himself with this field trip, intentionally or otherwise, and reaffirmed the nickname "The Walking Disaster".

Pressing the MP she had saved for information about Schugel's past was a risky gambit, but he was unlikely to report this to anyone of importance and she really-really wanted to survive her tenure at the Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility. Tanya had the firepower to repel the enemy spy that had infiltrated the facility. She wasn't as confident about the outcome if she had to face off with another one of Schugel's inane tests.

"You know full well what you're doing, Second Lieutenant. I ought to report such prying to your CO."

Tanya quietly applauded him for the response. He followed protocol as expected of someone with the formal authority to incarcerate her. However, context dictated a more informal course of action. Tanya was no mere Second Lieutenant; the MP owed his life to her. And Schugel was a curse of a commanding officer.

"Schugel is my CO, so you'd be digging yourself a hole," she began jokingly as she stared at the desolate road ahead. "This is a serious matter. I'm not intending to leave the testing facility in a body bag!"

"Which is not the worst thing that can happen to you over there…" the MP mused. Schugel had warned her about melting if she mishandled the Type 95 operation orb.

"Precisely why I'm asking. If there is anything about Schugel that I need to know to increase my chances, you must tell me."

The MP kept silent for a good minute. Tanya was anticipating a waiting game because divulging sensitive information touched upon several moral issues and was a breach of protocol. A rational mind would have weighed the potential damage the discussion would cause and the possibility of being exposed as a leaker.

"Would that make us even, then?"

Tanya stared at the MP in surprise. She did not expect to see the matter unravel so suddenly, nor did she think the MP would have the gall to ask such a high price for a little gossip. She had saved his life and he wanted to be in the clear for something Tanya was bound to learn through other means? How insulting!

"No."

He half-smiled at the little girl's attempt to haggle. "Schugel arrived together with a surveyor team after a mining accident. He didn't seem to be a part of the team, though. They normally stayed in Elin for a week and this guy had a return ticket to leave that very evening."

"Schugel was Schugel before he became the Engineering Director, eh?"

"You could say that. Whoever convinced him to go must've been trained in psychological warfare…and they had the connections to let him travel incognito."

Tanya suspected that Schugel had an influential backer, so the MP's story offered little new insight. The need for secrecy was also obvious: if the government was planning to seize the coal mine from the local proprietor, it had to act discretely to avoid upsetting the workers. A mining accident was a good excuse to call an intervention.

"Or they just really wanted to get him out of the way."

"It's possible, but the request for MP assistance when the surveyors' car broke down wouldn't have gone through if they weren't special somehow. Civilians get to deal with such issues on their own."

A group of mine surveyors arriving to the scene in an MP vehicle was bound to turn heads. Tanya would have hailed a taxi if Elin had any or just asked the locals for help, but the surveyors–one of them at least–were in a big hurry.

"And I got the job to babysit them… I've seen the same surveyors back when I still worked at the mine and they've been promoted several times since, which made their arrival strange. Accidents aren't that rare in the coal business and the company didn't normally send for specialists all the way from Berlun. Their equipment was something else, too."

The people behind the intervention selected executors with indisputable credentials and gear to back up any findings. This strengthened Tanya's first impression that they were in the hurry, but why the rush? The country wasn't at war back when Elin was a normal mining town.

Tanya didn't want secondary issues to distract her.

"What about Schugel?"

"He…wasn't much of an actor. He wanted to know about the sick miners and their symptoms, so I figured he was a doctor. The surveyors referred to him as such, anyway."

Schugel was a hard-headed academic and his field had nothing to do with medicine. Unless he was looking for something very toxic to play with, he would have never cared to ask about the miners' health. Men who sought such substances tended to be murderous or suicidal, not geniuses.

"What was he looking for?"

"God knows, Second Lieutenant, as my now-dead colleague put it." The MP wanted to sound clever, yet, after seeing Tanya's frown, he saw that his joke missed the mark. "You don't believe in afterlife, do you?"

"I don't believe in god."

Technically, Tanya was already in afterlife, so she had to take it at face value. The status of the terrible creature that brought her there, however, was up for discussion.

"If I could bend the laws of nature, I wouldn't, either." The MP tried to dispel some of the tension and realised that Tanya did not respond well to the segue, prompting him to return to the story. "Schugel was looking for trouble. He ordered the miners to drill a seam they had left behind on purpose because they knew it had pockets of trapped gas. I was waiting at the mine's entrance when I heard tremors. The explosion was no big deal, but there was also a flash of light: so bright that I could see it outside. These flashes often caused casualties and the miners called an ambulance just in case."

"But Schugel didn't die," said Tanya with longing in her voice.

"No. He almost went blind and had to be knocked unconscious for his own safety. The miners said he had grabbed a piece of rock and ran with it, shouting something about the future."

The flash explained Schugel's obsession with fancy oculars; he did pay for his own carelessness. It was a shame he lived to make others suffer afterwards, including Tanya.

"Next time I saw him in Elin, he was in a large group together with Gustave Krupps. Krupps arranged the construction of both the Elinium Arsenal and the Elinium Factory. Since then, everything found in the mine goes there."

Tanya recognised the name. The Krupps family was a centuries-old dynasty of industrialists. One could not go about and not see a car or train manufactured by the Krupps conglomerate. When the war broke out, it took up weapons manufacturing, and the fact construction work began before the war meant that Gustave Krupps was more in tune with the times than the Empire's political elite.

It made perfect sense for the government to seize the mine after the incident with Schugel. Gas leaks were a common occurrence, but what the surveyor team saw back then was something else entirely. With Schugel's help, they have made a discovery deemed too precious for a private business to own, not even Krupps'.

"This information…" Tanya paused, refraining from thanking him. After she reviewed what was said, she arrived at a disheartening conclusion. "This information is useless."

"What did you expect?"

"Something that'll help me deal with Schugel. Anything!"

The desperation in her eyes was a reminder that the decorated soldier known as Tanya Degurechaff was, in fact, still a child. She didn't take long to realise the folly of her outburst and revert to her composed self, but it was enough for the MP to mellow out.

"Second Lieutenant, have you imagined that maybe it's mutual between you two?"

"Huh?"

"You're not that nice to have around, and you can literally explode. Doesn't that make you more dangerous than him?"

Tanya's face darkened at the insinuation. From the perspective of an ignorant civilian, her ability to use magic could be frightening. Schugel had the pedigree of a team-killing madman, regardless of whom one asked.

"He commands others to die for him. I don't."

She found this metric simple enough for an MP to understand. Schugel was an eccentric academic too high in his ivory tower to acknowledge the damage of his actions. The death envelopes going out of the testing facility were a testament to this. His research, his tests were built on his compatriots' corpses.

On the other hand, Tanya fought to save lives, not extinguish them. No one wanted peace more than Tanya. The foolish politicians in the North had forced her hand.

"I saw you order two people to apologise or face certain death," the MP argued.

He underestimated the seriousness of her claim. Tanya was used to being underestimated. Though, it was the first time a person whose life she had saved acted so ungratefully. Aerial Mages were respected in the military because of their ability to exert material influence on the outcome of a battle. They endured the burden of responsibility as a treasured asset and, in Tanya's case, the migraine-inducing side effects of keeping an experimental operation orb in check. Goading an Aerial Mage like Tanya was a foolish and extremely dangerous endeavour.

She was not as bad as Schugel. She would never be as bad as him. If the MP was blind to this fact, it was _his_ problem.

The mana that bubbled inside Tanya as she deliberated a fitting response was impossible to see or touch for a regular person, but its overwhelming presence caused an uncomfortable sensation. The MP soon realised that he had overstepped a line by rejecting her reasoning as an excuse.

"You're awesome, Second Lieutenant. Anyone who does not believe it will treat you like a joke, but when they see the real you, they will be scared."

She smirked. Albeit the MP was way off the mark, totally unaware of Tanya's true identity, he has admitted that he, too, was afraid of her. As such, she could treat any of his jabs as trying to appear bigger in her shadow. His body language exposed what his words intended to keep hidden.

It was her turn to make a concession. Tanya could afford it. "I forgive you."

"Does that make us even?"

She glared at him, but didn't speak. The MP got the message that Tanya was going to hold him accountable until their transaction was fulfilled: he owed her a favour she would value as much as he valued his own life.

Tanya was not in the mood to muck about after the terms were agreed upon by mutual understanding. A contract needn't be written to be enforceable and Tanya was the ultimate enforcer as far as contracts were concerned.

A pillar of smoke was rising in the distance. They were approaching another closed off area, only this one didn't need security checkpoints to keep unwanted visitors out. The explosion had undone any ill intent to roam the premises while the fires that ensued made parts of the territory untraversable.

The car approached the vast ruins of a once-infamous site.

"There it is, the Elinium Arsenal. Or what's left of it… This is where you hop off."

Firemen were already at the scene doing their best to put out the fires from spreading to any remaining unexploded ammunition. The Empire's military might had been turned against itself when something set off a chain reaction in the main warehouse. An explosion that decimated the land as far as Tanya's eye could see spoke highly of the stockpiles at the army's disposal, unlike the facility's safety protocols.

Devastation had engulfed the warehousing complex, swallowing everything in the open-air storage, turning vehicles to shrapnel and melting the nearby railroad tracks. Tongues of fire still reaching into the sky made it difficult to approach the building without roasting in plain sight.

Tanya took note of how spectacularly the Imperial military's ambition backfired. Large stockpiles of ammunition proved dangerous even deep in the Empire's territory. Thankfully, the Elinium Arsenal had represented a tertiary supply line that would not become critical without complications, like the formation of another front. In more pressing times, the incident could have seriously impacted supplies of ammunition. The damage done to the railroad would have been even more concerning than the loss of the stored armaments: transit shipments going past Elin would have had to be rerouted elsewhere, a nightmare scenario for the Logistics Department.

She was about to get out of the car when she realised that she couldn't recall Schugel mentioning the Elinium Arsenal. The corporal had told her that placement there was a form of severe punishment, using inept Aerial Mages in live fire tests. The irony was that this facility appeared to have tested all of its ammunition on itself at the same time in anticipation of Tanya's arrival. Tanya hoped that her future enemies would be as understanding and well-behaved to just get to the point and off themselves for her.

"I thought we were going to the Elinium Factory," Tanya said.

"The road is blocked and I'm not going all the way back to take the detour. You're better off flying there; it's straight ahead."

He was right. The road leading towards another concrete compound a distance away was heavily littered with debris. Smoke hanging in the air and the occasional burst of flame from hot ammunition made the path forward dangerous.

However, Tanya had gone out of her way for the MP beforehand and expected as much dedication in return. It would have been easier to ditch the MPs and see the car get blown to bits. "That's what I thought when the explosion happened. I'll be back."

One of the firemen saw her walk towards the main warehouse and ran to intervene. "Whoah there, little lady! It's far too dangerous to approach the Arsenal. There's no telling what else might explode until we put out this fire." He put his hand on her shoulder, trying to turn her away.

Tanya stifled the bitterness left from her exchange with the MP and addressed the fireman with her usual cool professionalism, "Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff, Inspector General of Logistics Office."

A more accurate introduction would have included the Tactical Training Department's name or her role, but the first was going to confuse the fireman and the second had a low intern-ish ring to it.

"Inspector General…oh dear. How may I be of service?"

That was when she knew her intro hit the jackpot. The fireman let go of her as soon as he heard the name, having likely assumed she was a big shot in search of a scapegoat to pin the incident on. The truth was much worse.

"Tell your men to evacuate and I will take care of this fire. It's in my way…"

Her ominous tone should have been enough to persuade him, but the fireman had doubts about following the orders of a little girl in fatigues. "With due respect, ma'am-"

"I'm an Aerial Mage."

The Type 95 operation orb shone brightly as she took off, leaving the fireman speechless. She would not have expected to share the sentiment when she flew high enough to see the whole Elinium Arsenal facility and a piece of familiar wreckage, a rocket engine, near the main warehouse.

A pulsejet had crashed into the Elinium Arsenal. It looked just like the ones she had seen at the Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility.


	27. Big Bertha

The firemen looked like ants from above. They scurried away from the destroyed Elinium Arsenal complex to give Tanya the space to act.

She was going to put up an unforgettable performance. It was her first field test in front of such a large crowd, so the pressure to succeed was there and it didn't help with her concentration. The sensitive operation orb had gotten warm under her uniform, a reminder that the fire on the ground wasn't the only threat.

Sweat streaked down her temples at the amount of heat washing over her. The smoke rising from the ammunition warehouses irritated her eyes and made it difficult to breathe, but she was determined to show the fire who was the boss.

A cooling spell would have made the task a lot easier and Tanya regretted not asking the instructors back at the Officer Cadet School for help. The idea that Aerial Mages could put out fires instead of staring them hadn't crossed her mind that time and it was too risky to improvise in her current condition.

 _Spilled milk under the bridge._

She wasn't worried about revealing that she had the experimental orb on her person outside a sanctioned testing environment; the firemen and any survivors were likely to have a poor understanding of an Aerial Mage's capabilities to begin with. To the more inquisitive, Tanya had a catch-all response: she was the only living bearer of the Silver Wings Assault Medal.

Her main concern, other than not making a fool of herself, was the presence of a wrecked pulsejet. She was positive that it had come from Klusross and crashed into the main ammunition warehouse, setting off the chain of explosions, which destroyed the Arsenal.

Considering the on-going raid of the testing facility by the Intelligence Bureau and the search for the enemy spy Mage, this development would not go well with the brass. She consoled herself with the knowledge that she would not be on the list of suspects for the incident, having left the facility beforehand. The same applied to Schugel and anyone else inside the truck that had passed Tanya's car on the way.

A highly improbable coincidence aside, Tanya had to conclude that the spy was still at large and he was a crafty operator. After trying to assassinate her by attaching a timed explosion spell that worked like poison to some coffee, he took up a more direct approach with the pulsejet. If she were a spy, destroying a large amount of ammunition, Schugel and Tanya in one fell swoop would have made a lot of sense. Not to mention such a result was bound to warrant medals and enter textbooks as an example of a perfect operation.

Reality proved a little more challenging. Tanya survived and she knew better than give in to the belief that Schugel died. The explosion at the Arsenal was going to attract a lot of attention from the military, effectively reducing the spy's chances of returning home to zero. A suicidal foe did not deserve Tanya's respect.

The spy has demonstrated a preference for elaborate schemes, which, in Tanya's book, was a sign of weakness. She had the courage to face her challenges head-on and the intelligence to overcome them

Tanya chose to fight fire with fire. First, her operation orb pinpointed the biggest pockets of flame, which she extinguished using lightless combustion spells that cut off the oxygen supply. Then, she funnelled the residual heat and smoke high above the Arsenal. The sudden updraft pulled the hot air lingering near the surface around the ruins, further disrupting residual fires.

Commotion on the ground ceased as the firemen stared at the pillar of smoke being pulled into the cloud layer. Tanya's actions caused shock and awe: they have never seen or even imagined anything like it. She was a force of nature fighting for them.

When major pockets of heat dissipated without reigniting, Tanya nodded to herself and descended back to the ground, where happy servicemen gathered to welcome her. A disarming smile and angel wings would have gotten her a more boisterous reaction, she surmised, because some of the firemen seemed put off by the appearance of their saviour. Tanya's sweaty soot-covered face and glowing eyes above a laboured grimace showed that she had a steep learning curve ahead if she wanted to get out of an engagement unscathed.

The crew manager sang praises to her, nonetheless: "Incredible, Second Lieutenant! What courage! What skill! Where are you stationed? We must arrange an award for this great deed."

"That won't be necessary. I'm just doing my duty."

She saw the MP supposed to drive her to the Elinium Factory chatting with another fireman. They parted ways as soon as they noticed her approaching.

"Let's go," she told the MP.

"The road is still blocked."

He was right, of course. The car wouldn't make it past concrete slabs and other debris on the tarmac, let alone a few imposing craters. What the MP conveniently forgot was that he had an Aerial Mage at his disposal. Tanya communicated that to him by channelling so much mana into the ground that it caused tremors. Her mind would do the heavy lifting if he did his part as expected.

"Right." He got in the car together with Tanya when he saw her point.

Debris moved out of the car's path as it drove forward, gliding over craters and passing stacks of visibly hot unexploded ordnance. The driver pretended not to be scared for his life while the sooty little girl next to him performed numerous instances of telekinesis.

It was tiring work for Tanya. The farther they were from the Arsenal, though, the less wreckage she had to deal with. Eventually, she saw the Elinium Factory, a sprawling eyesore of a building hidden behind a concrete wall lined with barbed wire. Compared to the surroundings, the factory compound looked pristine.

"How did it survive the blast? It's so close to the Arsenal."

"You're not the only Mage in town, Second Lieutenant. The Arsenal contained the more conventional weaponry. The factory, well, you'll find out soon…"

She would find out, but she didn't like the prospect of doing so. A place that used Mages as static defence had a distinctively unpleasant vibe. Schugel was the Engineering Director there and he was sure to experiment on her with whatever dangerous inventions besides operation orbs he had in stock. As Schugel's subordinate, Tanya had to take it without question.

A heavily armed guard motioned for the car to stop in front of the metal entry gate. The occasional spark revealed that the gate was electrified. It was the first time Tanya witnessed such security in this world.

"Halt!"

The MP opened the window to hand the guard the documents.

After getting acquainted with the contents, the guard scowled. "The manifest says there are two people and one WMD on board. I see one and a half people at most. Explain."

The MP and Tanya glanced at each other. It was déjà vu of what the MPs did when there were still two of them to accompany Tanya.

"I'm here to drop off the WMD. The car isn't going on factory grounds."

"Where is the WMD?"

"You're looking at her," said the MP as he pointed at Tanya. The guard was taken aback by this. "Didn't the Engineering Director inform you?"

Mentioning Schugel appeared to have gotten the clearance process going. The guard retreated inside the compound through a small side gate and didn't return for several minutes. The MP gave Tanya the handkerchief she previously rejected to wipe her face in the meantime. Her uniform was just as dirty, but she would have had to use magic to clean it and that was unlikely to go well with security.

"Is this normal?" Tanya asked after a prolonged pause.

"No, but the Elinium Arsenal doesn't explode on normal days."

Albeit she meant to inquire about the reaction everyone was having to Schugel's name, the answer sufficed. The explosion must have put the people inside the Elinium Factory on edge, too.

The guard returned with good news.

"Your papers check out. Walk through this gate."

He followed Tanya to the entrance, where another guard was waiting for her on the other side.

A warning light lit up and she heard a buzzing noise when she passed. This hadn't happened to the guard, so Tanya assumed she triggered a sensor of some sort. To be on the safe side, she disabled her operation orb.

"Welcome to the Elinium Factory, Second Lieutenant. Follow me and we'll process your admission."

Tanya entered a small security building by the entrance. All the lights except a desk lamp were dimmed. There was an empty metal box on the desk.

"Deposit all of your personal belongings in this box."

As she walked deeper into the room towards the desk, the door slammed shut and she realised there was a black-clad Intelligence Bureau agent observing her from the shadows. The guard who welcomed her inside sat down behind the desk.

Tanya stared at the deposit box. Aerial Mages didn't carry personal belongings during such assignments and she hadn't taken a weapon with her, considering the MP escort during the ride as well as the superior capabilities of the Type 95 operation orb she was using.

"Keys, pins, medals?" the guard asked.

She shook her head. Tanya had left her medal back at the testing facility, lest it would be damaged during a test.

Awkward silence ensued. The guard glanced at the Intelligence Bureau agent, who nodded, and pulled out a large metal device. It consisted of a rod with a circle on one end, a handle on the other and several wires going to a power supply. When the guard put on a pair of headphones connected to the device, Tanya figured it was a primitive metal detector. They were going to verify that she wasn't bringing any personal belongings into the facility.

She realised that something was off when the ring end of the supposed metal detector hovered over her chest. The operation orb sapped an unusual amount of mana too quickly for her to properly react, resulting in activation that was all-too-easy to see in the dark room.

The guard operating the device gestured at the Intelligence Bureau agent. "Sir, you may want to have a look." Then, he turned to Tanya. "Second Lieutenant, if you don't mind, unbutton your top."

Tanya's heart skipped a beat at the request. She was in for a colossal misunderstanding that she could delay, but not stop.

"I mind."

Another guard entered the room and, upon receiving the signal from the agent, restrained Tanya's arms from behind, lifting her tiny body off the floor in the process.

"Hey! Hands off! This is military property!"

The first guard stepped away from the desk to slowly approach Tanya. He was eyeing the red light glowing from under her uniform the entire time. "You're right it's military property." With a single resolute movement, he tore into the jacket and exposed Tanya's Type 95B operation orb. "Call the Chief of Security. She's trying to smuggle unauthorised equipment into the factory." He tried to grab the operation orb, but the jewel at its core had gotten so hot that he pulled away. "Do you want to get us all killed? How stupid do you think you are?"

More guards rushed into the building. Tanya was on the verge of tears. She resisted the irrational urge to blow them all up and lamented about the stain her current predicament would leave on her career prospects.

The guard holding her was putting so much strength into his grip that she started struggling out of fear that her arms would break, which further escalated the situation.

When she thought it couldn't get worse, she heard Schugel's voice. He was as bright and tactless as ever. "Second Lieutenant, you're late! How are you?"

Tanya looked at him from the corner of her increasingly moist eye and gritted her teeth angrily. If Tanya lost her focus for a split second, the operation orb would go out of control. Schugel's nonchalance was not helping.

Schugel approached the guard restraining her and asked, "Why are you bothering her?"

"She's trying to smuggle equipment into the facility."

"Is that a problem? It'd be terrible if she tried to smuggle something out, but she appears to be doing the opposite!"

The other guard shook his burnt hand and said, "Engineering Director, sir, the rules are clear about this. I won't take responsibility for letting her in."

A middle-aged man in a suit entered the cramped building. He was visibly dishevelled by the sight of a restrained little girl in military garb and the alarmingly bright operation orb on her chest.

Schugel smiled at him. "Ah, Chief of Security. How are you? Your subordinate is acting irresponsibly by not letting my valuable testing personnel into the factory!"

The Chief of Security stared in disbelief as he walked towards Tanya. "This little girl is the future of the Imperial army?" He paused. "I don't know who in their right mind sent this child to war, but if she's under your knowledge, Engineering Director, may God help her. Release her."

Tanya and Schugel left the building together with most of the guards. The Chief of Security remained inside, discussing something in an elevated tone with whom Tanya assumed was the Intelligence Bureau agent. Someone had to accept the blame for the embarrassing situation.

"How was the trip?" Schugel asked.

She needed a moment to compose herself, the unruly operation orb and her uniform. There was no point in hiding it anymore, so she openly used magic to pop the buttons torn by the brutish guard back onto her jacket.

"Uneventful," she said in the end.

"You did not see anything out of the ordinary?"

Tanya looked ahead. She was in the factory's loading area. A number of cargo vehicles were parked on the side. The railroad tracks coming out of a hangar-like building suggested that this area routinely handled massive shipments. The smoke that lingered in the air pointed to unhealthy labour conditions.

"Just another day on the job, sir."

"The air quality in my office has dropped moments ago, which was why I went outside in the first place. Do you happen to know anything about that?"

Feeling that she was about to fall in a trap, she lowered her head and caught a glimpse at the pillar of smoke she had lifted from the Elinium Arsenal. The wind direction has changed and now a part of the smoke was descending on factory grounds.

"The fire was in my way…"

"So you just carpet bombed all the oxygen in the neighbourhood with magic like an uneducated brute? I thought you were better than this."

"I was in a hurry," she mumbled.

"So you were. Next time you're in a hurry to fix our neighbour's problems, make sure we don't get to deal with the consequences of your…solution."

He had already scolded her for being late, which meant that the easy part was over with.

The ground shook when the large factory door rolled open, revealing a howitzer bigger than anything Tanya had seen thus far. It was so heavy it had to be put on a freight car pulled by a locomotive. Artillery of this size could lay siege to a fortress.

"What is that?"

"That, Second Lieutenant, is a state-of-the-art…remote mining rig. We call it Big Robertha. We're doing a test run in the afternoon and I got you a front-row seat as thanks for the tests we're going to run till then."

Tanya took a moment to process what Schugel said. It sounded like he seriously called it a mining rig. Tanya had seen mining rigs and, unless this one was supposed to unearth soldiers hidden in some bunker, she was positive this howitzer was not a mining rig. She wanted to probe Schugel for information before voicing her doubts, but he was in a good mood. A question he would deem stupid was the easiest way to alter that mood.

"Come inside, come inside." He waved at her.

Once the locomotive responsible for moving Big Robertha exited the building in full and its fumes cleared out, Tanya was able to peer inside Schugel's domain. It was just as she suspected: a cacophonous mix of red flags. Sparks, flames, clanging, creaking–all of it potentially lethal. The tests he could come up with in such conditions would make SERE look like cakewalk.

"Welcome to the Elinium Factory, where mind meets machine to become flesh."

"The motto needs work. Let's get this over with…"

Schugel was leading her deep inside the compound through halls and corridors, each representing a different field of interest of the factory owner. Hundreds of workers toiled at the assembly lines, cranes and furnaces to convert the various ores the factory received into finished products. Aside for trains, tanks and other military vehicles, Tanya recognised parts of the small arms manufacturing process. Surprisingly, the factory also produced mining equipment. Krupps' factory put every resource it received to good use.

The part of the factory Tanya was most eager to see, however, the operation orb assembly line, was not a part of the tour. Schugel stopped in front of a machine that resembled the cross section of a giant internal combustion engine, with several concave arcs big enough to fit a person at the front. Half of a piston would normally go in such an arc, but these were empty. Tanya wasn't sure what to make of it, which further dampened her mood.

"As you already know, today we are going to do a few easy stress tests to verify that the Elinium Type 95B operation orb performs in line with technical specifications. Since my assistant is busy, I will chaperon you throughout the procedures. Is that clear, Second Lieutenant?"

 _Easy stress tests? Easy?!_ _It's called a "stress test" because it's the opposite of easy!_

She nodded. It was clear that she was going to discover a presently undocumented circle of hell.

"In this first stress test, we are going to verify the operation orb's acceleration tolerance with the help of the Supersonic Ascension Device you see in front of you."

Even the machine's name boded evil for whomever had the misfortune to use it. "SAD…"

"Chin up, Second Lieutenant! Because up is where you're heading today."

The question on Tanya's mind was whether she'd get back down in one piece.


	28. SAD

Schugel unsealed Tanya's orders. "Your instructions for the acceleration stress test are as follows: maintain the Elinium Type 95B operation orb in normal operation mode throughout the test, which begins when you step inside the Supersonic Ascension Device and ends when your velocity reaches zero.

Tanya glanced at the engine-like machine and the factory's roof above it. The more she thought about the implications, the less she wanted to keep thinking about them.

"Throughout the test, you are to remain inside the Supersonic Ascension Device. These are the qualitative criteria. Your reaction time at the end of the test will be measured. That is the quantitative criterion. As always, you may suspend the test at any time by saying the designated safeword. Here you are and there you go." He handed Tanya a red envelope before directing her towards one of the engine's pistons.

It was the first time she had to rely on a different piece of equipment to initiate a test. She didn't know how it functioned, but it was coded in the name that she would be ascending at supersonic speed and, at some point, return to the surface. She would have been more at ease if Schugel were a rocket scientist. He was a scientist, but he didn't strike her as a fan of rockets.

Regardless of the transportation method, she cared about survivability. "What kind of acceleration are we talking about?"

"Vertical, of course."

"That's not what I meant…" Tanya complained. The answer wasn't completely useless because it gave her a clue about the angle of her ascent, making her revisit the idea of a rocket being involved.

"I'm not psychic, Second Lieutenant, so you should formulate your questions precisely. If you wish for an empathic answer, it's the kind of acceleration that breaks your joints when you fail to keep your operation orb…operational."

Tanya took a heavy breath and nodded. There was no point in stalling: her fate was in her hands alone now, as Schugel would be the last person to come to her aid. She stepped into a concave supposed to house one of the cross-sectioned engine's pistons and almost jumped when the piston started going down.

The piston turned around its axis at dizzying speed until Tanya found herself trapped in a thick metal shell assembled around her. It was hermetically sealed, so she would run out of air in a matter of minutes without using support spells.

She felt pressure at her feet akin to that of a rising elevator. When it stopped, she nearly lost balance because something moved her metal container horizontally. That probably meant that the engine-like machine was used only to construct the shell and Schugel wouldn't fire her through the Elinium Factory's roof. She considered that good news.

There was a lot of commotion in the area Tanya was passing. Schugel didn't communicate with her while she was being moved and she decided to use this moment of privacy to take a peek at her safeword. She opened the red envelope.

"I am afraid of heights. I want to be grounded," she read. "Tch. Honestly, what was I expecting…"

"Did you say something, Second Lieutenant?"

His voice, resonated by the metal shell, startled her. She didn't know there was a two-way speaker installed. "Doctor Schugel! You can hear me!"

"Professor Schugel, Second Lieutenant. We've discussed this."

If he wanted to be called professor, he should have gone to work in a university instead of experimenting on people like one crazy fictional doctor. The metal clinks and clangs that rattled her appeared to precede the A for Ascension in Schugel's SAD test.

When she heard an emergency siren and a calm monotone urging everyone to vacate the immediate area, she knew her time was up. Magic signatures turned up as she sensed magic barriers raised around her. Factory staff weren't taking any risks, should she fail.

Schugel took to the microphone, "Ascending in three-two-one."

 _This is it_!

Tanya spread out in the cramped space to touch as much of the surface area as she could in preparation for the burst of speed. She readied support spells to stabilise her bodily functions and reduce strain, but success was bound to prove elusive, so she dug deep into her mana pool, should the operation orb give her trouble.

Despite her careful calculation, the explosive jolt took her by surprise. The soles of her shoes seemed to have flattened and the acceleration pressure was so immense that she couldn't cry out: the gasp went right back in.

Her eyes hurt as if they were about to fall into her skull and she realised she could black out at any second. The tower of cards that was her body trembled at the foundation. It didn't matter that she had little air inside because she couldn't breathe in the first place.

She abused the orb's multi-tasking function by simultaneously injecting steroids and sedatives into her bloodstream. She was keenly aware of the side-effects, but it was her best bet at staying conscious and dulling her body's pain response at the same time.

As the magic started kicking in, Tanya made a mental note to visit the restroom before participating in another stress test. She couldn't have asked for a steeper learning curve.

"How are you, Second Lieutenant?"

Schugel was right on target for picking an inconvenient moment to chat. His question bordered on mockery and it was pissing her off. He should have known how she was: like a human cannonball.

Tanya gritted her teeth, trying to see if she'd be able to speak. "Tight. Very tight."

"Loosen up, then! I'll be waiting for you on the ground when you complete this test. It's the easiest one, after all."

Tanya wanted to pull at her hair and scream. Her life had reached its high point the day she arrived at the testing facility and her visit to the Elinium Factory was just another leg of the dive down into a bottomless pit of gloom. He had worse tests in store. Tests that made the dread of being used as a projectile look simple.

Her passionate hatred for Schugel and love of her own life distracted her from the fact that she was slowing down. The nauseating side effects of support spell overdose were beginning to kick in, so she had enough grief to balance the good news with.

One of the operation orb's sensors notified her about her vertical speed approaching zero. Tanya welcomed the information as her cue to subvert the Type 95's defensive features.

She channelled mana to project a very thick and very small defensive barrier, which she then expanded with such force that the metal shell around her popped open like a pressure can.

The freedom was exhilarating. She stared at the bright morning sun, not a cloud left between her and its brilliance, and yelled at the top of her lungs: "Eat shit, Schugel!"

Nausea caught up to deliverance, immediately pulling her head down to the layer of clouds. She hoped that Schugel's ability to monitor her disappeared together with the destruction of her containment, which she later identified as an oversized artillery shell. She also hoped that the sick she puked out would fall through the clouds on his head.

It wasn't a proud moment. Her ears and nose were bleeding, and the chilling altitude way above the standard for Aerial Mages highlighted that she was somewhere she didn't belong.

She would return to conquer these heights, but it had to wait for another day. Tanya was concerned about descending safely and patching herself up in the process. The stress test was successful; she deserved to look like it.

Tanya charged to the surface with a gust of wind that had Schugel cover his face. Her descent caused a small dust storm that silenced the on-lookers' applause.

While factory staff were preoccupied with keeping the dust from getting in their eyes, Tanya examined the so-called SAD that got her in the air. It was the same howitzer she had seen upon arrival. Was this the front-row seat Schugel spoke of?

It couldn't have been. Schugel had said that Big Robertha was going to be tested later in the day.

Schugel looked happy. A group of scientists was having a lively conversation behind him and the resumed applause of personnel Schugel had brought with him from the Klusross testing facility raised Tanya's status with factory employees. The familiar faces, including the corporal that used to shuttle her around, also shortened Tanya's list of suspects: the enemy spy was among those who remained on the testing facility's grounds. It could have been anyone, from kitchen staff who delivered meals outside the mess hall to maintenance personnel with access to jet hangars.

"Second Lieutenant! You've made it! What took you so long?"

Tanya smirked at Schugel's attempt to take the initiative. She could afford this. "Traffic," she said, waving proudly at the crowd cheering for her. Her performance improved the job security for a number of people involved in the test, including Schugel.

He had little recourse but to accept her right to bask in the afterglow. Tanya was on track to participate in a more difficult test.

"Hrm. In any case, thanks to my quick thinking, Second Lieutenant, we've tested both the Supersonic Ascension Device and the Elinium Type 95B operation orb, putting us back on schedule. What do you say?"

The crowd started dispersing. Tanya noticed that the staff who arrived with Schugel from the testing facility were in charge of the Big Robertha howitzer. It was a clever play that diminished the risks for Krupps' people by transferring the responsibility for the shot onto the soldiers. Schugel's position in the testing facility and the factory made him an exception, which guaranteed that he'd receive most of the credit regardless of the result.

Tanya had experienced it in her previous life: the quickest to rise through the ranks had the innate ability to know when to take an outsized risk. The highest-paid leaders were essentially savvy gamblers who enjoyed an exponential winning streak. The trick was having someone to take the fall were the streak to inadvertently end.

She understood that she was Schugel's fall person. Should a test fail, she would share the blame. A failure that resulted in her death was, therefore, preferable because it precluded the possibility that she'd defend herself and sink Schugel in the process.

"I think I like rockets now."

"Rockets. Preposterous! Second Lieutenant, you're keeping your head in the clouds and I'd appreciate it if you focused on the matter at hand."

"Namely?"

"The pressure stress test! Haven't you read the itinerary?"

She had read it. Or tried to. By the time she had taken the itinerary out of her bathwater, only a mysterious inscription that said "Deus Vult" remained. Her evening ritual didn't go as planned yesterday.

A pressure test likely used static loads as opposed to the dynamic nature of the acceleration test. Still, it was a stress test, so Tanya expected an ugly surprise to crop up during the procedure.

Schugel had to be aware that Tanya withstood the explosion borne of the destruction of the Elinium Arsenal. The Type 95 operation orb protected her and the MPs accompanying her from the blast wave, which one would have deemed more challenging to negate than a static load, voiding the necessity to execute this test.

Tanya arrived at two possible conclusion. _A_ : Schugel needed to verity her performance in a formal testing environment or _B_ : the explosion was foreplay to the challenge in store for her. The second option was beginning to look increasingly likely because Schugel did say that the upcoming stress tests were harder.

She hadn't received such a warning from him before.

He was taking her back inside the factory. Judging by his slow pace, they were going to stop soon. Tanya wouldn't have guessed he'd pick the furnace hall for this test.

"Here we are. Make yourself at home, Second Lieutenant."

Liquid iron bubbling brightly in crucibles sliding on mounted rails out of furnaces, workers in thick heat-resistant clothes, bug-eyed goggles and faces as dark as coal–this space resembled a hell populated by demons, not a department in a business.

 _When you're going through hell, keep going_ , Tanya told herself.

"Shall we begin?"

"I'd like to visit the restroom first."

Schugel returned to demonstratively clicking his ocular. "How inefficient, Second Lieutenant. Second door in the hallway on your left."

It was pointless to try to explain that she was acting on a lesson she has just learnt and not stalling, as Schugel must have assumed. Tanya could have used a shower and a new set of clothes, but it was a tall ask this early in the day and she was better off taking what she could afford.

Once the opportunity arrived, Tanya made thorough use of the amenities at her disposal. She washed her face and took a gulp of tap water that she purified with magic. There were no towels around and Tanya found herself increasingly reliant on magic to carry on. She hated to think about the consequences of keeping the experimental operation orb activated for such an extended period of time.

She dreaded the possibility that her long-term interaction with the Type 95B was a secret test.

The tests Schugel forced upon her openly were enough to break a lesser Aerial Mage.

"I've made some changes to the pressure stress test detailed in your itinerary," Schugel began after she returned. "Originally, I intended to verify the operation orb's resistance to static loads."

Tanya had been right. Had been, because the change implied she wasn't right anymore and option _B_ came into force. She tried not to expose her anxiety about the turn of events, as Schugel was examining her body language for clues.

"However, your performance during the joint Supersonic Ascension Device test convinced me that we may shave more time off the packed schedule by combining it with the heat stress test and adding a variable load."

Tanya took a big breath and put out her chest to look like a model soldier. "I am honoured to live up to this challenge."

"Excellent, Second Lieutenant! I was about to ask if you would rather these tests separated and I apologise for doubting your motivation. Provided you succeed, this will reflect on your final assessment."

She closed her eyes and grimaced at what she heard. There was an easier way and she blew her chance to take it. The bubbling metal going out of the furnace in giant crucibles gave her a hint of what was in store for her. Schugel's insistence on the test being important enough to affect her overall evaluation supported her fear that he had discovered a new circle of hell and was about to throw her into it.

"Would you like to see your safeword?"


	29. Hellfire Angel

Tanya glared at the red envelope Schugel waved in front of her face. "I don't think so."

"Are you sure? Second Lieutenant, it could be all that stands between you and failure."

"As if using the safeword wasn't an indication of failure."

Schugel's motivation to hand her the safeword in advance was suspect. Tanya considered the procedure a sham that met formal guidelines despite violating their spirit. She refused to take his advice at face value.

"An indication, yes, but not of failure. Even though I conduct equipment tests in controlled environments, there is the possibility of encountering an unknown variable absent from the test's specification. The procedure was set up to mitigate that risk in a timely fashion."

In theory, it was a sound justification and the people who approved of Schugel's idea were probably unaware of how terrible his execution would be. After giving it some thought, Tanya put the value of that probability between "low" and "very low" because one would have to be blind and stupid to overlook Schugel's propensity to turn good initiatives into disasters.

Tanya, on the other hand, was a practical person, and the question she prepared for him was a reflection of that: "Has the procedure ever been executed during a test?"

"No."

This was Tanya's "Gotcha!" moment. She couldn't get a word in edgewise, though, as Schugel made a quick follow up.

"The controlled testing environments I've designed have been faultless thus far. Statistically speaking, the longer this uninterrupted streak of successful tests continues, the higher is the risk of the anomaly's occurrence. It would be reckless to ignore this scientific fact."

If he wasn't her CO, she'd give him a piece of her mind and she'd give it to him right where it hurt. All of Tanya's predecessors who died during his so-called successful tests in supposedly controlled environments would disagree with his assessment. Schugel did not appear to fathom the practical issues that came with controlling the kind of power the Type 95 operation orb was capable of unleashing.

She grabbed the envelope to make him stop waggling it by her nose. Schugel was wrong–there could be no argument about that–but Tanya found no real downside to playing along. She opened the envelope and gaped at the safeword written inside.

"'Argh'? That's simple, considering…"

"No, Second Lieutenant. Not 'eugh'. Argh. Enunciate! This procedure is critical to your survival."

Tanya rolled her eyes. She wasn't prone to rolling her eyes; she just wanted Schugel to see that she was flipping him off. He had no choice except to go with it because reprimanding her now would cause a delay.

"I see. Argh," she droned.

Schugel pushed a big red button that opened the service entrance to one of the furnaces. The time for jokes was over.

"I hope to see you as humoured and motivated at the end of this test as you are now. These are your orders: enter the furnace and assume position beneath the molten iron crucible that will be delivered to you."

That made the heat component of the stress test clear. Tanya secretly practiced the safeword in anticipation of the second part. Cooling magic should have been included in basic training. It was insane to have to improvise a vital spell under a container of molten iron in the very furnace melting that iron. Conducting any sort of magic in those conditions was bound to yield unexpected results, save for full-body burns.

Schugel continued: "Once delivered, keep the crucible in a fixed vertical position above you until it leaves the furnace. Your performance will be assessed in respect to the amount of metal left in the crucible at the time of exit. This measurement will conclude the test. How are you?"

He didn't show it, but it had to be a form of proactive revenge for her sass. Proactive because she hadn't done anything purposefully sassy beforehand and the test had to be prepared in advance. That meant Schugel could predict that his terrible character would provoke a hostile response from Tanya or his character was more terrible than she had imagined. If a PoW was treated this way, it would have been a war crime.

"Alive, motivated and willing to defect," she said absent-mindedly, too preoccupied with figuring out a way to survive the test.

"Eh?"

Tanya prodded him with another question, intent on driving the point home at all costs because it couldn't possibly worsen her current predicament, "May I ask if I am the first Aerial Mage to conduct this test?"

"Aerial Mages drafted from the mountains excelled at fighting off the heat."

Schugel's flat reply caught Tanya off guard. She had been positive that no one else survived this far into the testing regimen. Repeated attempts suggested that the stress test's inhumane design had been approved by Schugel's enablers. No sane government official would sign off on a procedure that put precious military personnel at risk of burning alive in liquid metal.

 _Wait. This isn't a government facility…_

As the Engineering Director, Schugel answered to the Facility Manager or some other administrator assigned by a representative of Gustave Krupps, not to the Inspector General of Logistics Office. Tanya hated the fact she considered filing a request for government oversight to limit the freedom of the private enterprise that was the Elinium Factory. It went against her free market beliefs, but so did suicide at Schugel's behest.

"And where are they now?" she asked to avoid being fooled with semantics. Schugel spoke of those other Mages in past tense, so they could have died because of him.

"Protecting the Elinium Factory from rogue elements for the duration of your field trip."

Tanya lowered her head in shame. She made a scene about a test she believed impossible only to find out that she was bested by other Mages. Had she not asked, she would have continued assuming that she was the best testing personnel to date and acted like it. The embarrassment weighed heavily on her self-esteem.

"This by no means implies you are not special, Second Lieutenant. This combined variant of the heat and pressure test has been developed specifically for you. Your comrades at the Tactical Training Department are ready to be impressed. Are you?"

The Tactical Training Department. Tanya was assigned to them in the first place, yet her secondary role as testing personnel appeared to have taken precedence. Schugel manipulated statutes to receive formal approval for this torture. There was government oversight, after all, only the overseers were blind to Schugel's deviltry.

She gazed into the furnace's fiery innards. The sight made an impression, but Tanya wouldn't let that impression last long.

"No, but you better be. I'm going in!"

Just as she started marching towards the flames, Schugel grabbed her hand and said, "One more thing, Second Lieutenant: be careful."

"Professor Schugel, sir…" Tanya was speechless. Nothing about his person told her that he cared about her well-being, or any human's well-being for that matter. If it weren't for the hot air coming out of the furnace, she would have smiled at her unlikely error in judgement. Did Schugel have a heart despite everything?

"The furnace is not insured from magic damage. Take good care of it while you're inside."

He didn't. Schugel's heartlessness was absolute and Tanya was a fool to doubt her own in-depth assessment. Even though he called her special, he put a higher value on equipment than on her life. The insult went beyond objectification.

Human resources were to be valued, not squandered. As difficult as it was to fight Schugel's drive to extinction, Tanya vowed that she would not allow him to waste her potential.

The knowledge about the ins and outs of a byzantine bureaucracy that she carried over from her previous life was her secret weapon. If all else failed, she would fight Schugel through the due process that placed him above her. For now, she had to settle for venting her frustrations to her outlandish CO. The doors his approval could open discouraged her from passing the point of no return this early. It was a high risk, high reward line of work.

As she entered the furnace and saw the service entrance seal behind her, she felt her remaining optimism vanish. There was no fair market price that Schugel could afford to pay for her services.

The moisture she had on her face after the wash evaporated in a puff of steam, indicating that she would need to rely on her operation orb for thereon in.

Tanya cast a few basic spells to check how magic performed in this environment before picking a suitable method of life support. She realised that she couldn't conjure a cooling spell; her style of casting involved a natural affinity for heat, which would have required serious alterations to agitated mana. The last time she tried that, she suffered from internal bleeding and nearly caused an explosion that would have blown the testing facility into smithereens. The temperature was rising too quickly to bank on this strategy.

A Mage's personal shield offered protection from small arms fire, but it was useless against an environmental foe. Erecting an impregnable magic barrier sounded like a better pick and Tanya would have immediately gone for it if it weren't for the massive amount of mana the spell required. She didn't need a bubble intended to stop an artillery shell to stay cool.

What she needed was a way to diffuse the heat or at least prevent it from transferring to her body. Tanya's first decision was to rise above the floor and avoid any contact with solid surfaces. This allowed her to insulate herself from the worst offenders among heat conductors. A sweat-inducing spell came second. It required little mana and offered protection in case a more powerful safeguard expired.

The tests Tanya had endured taught her that brute force alone was a no-go. She had to be clever with how she used her mana. Like a mountain river, she would find the path of least resistance to reach her destination.

The heat was starting to get to her as she approached the main chamber of the furnace, so she used a material variant of the spell that saved her from residual mana during the first test. This time, she used her mana to manipulate the air around her, forcing it to spin in a tight vortex.

She couldn't see anything outside the vortex due to the visual distortions it caused. It also became apparent that the growing amount of heat swirling around her would eventually knock her out. Restricting her magic to _gentle_ spells to avoid damaging the equipment added another layer of difficulty to the test.

Tanya closed her eyes since they were useless and focused on the environmental data gathered by her operation orb. The chamber Tanya entered housed a set of multi-directional rails used to haul crucibles. The molten metal containers rose from a central point in the floor, where the most intense heat was coming from.

Schugel could have churned out an even harder test if he wanted to. The heat inside the chamber Tanya was in could undo a hapless intruder in a matter of minutes, but it paled in comparison to what was happening at the lower level, where the actual melting of the metal took place.

Movement below interrupted her concentration, nearly collapsing the vortex of scorching air onto her. Tanya's operation orb was beginning to show signs of overheating, prompting her to pull it out of her uniform to improve airflow.

Levitation, air vortex, support and now directing hot air away from the glowing red orb–Tanya has exhausted the quad core's multi-tasking capability. Any additional commands would interfere with her current spells, all of which were critical just to carry on. To make matters worse, the vortex required an increasing amount of mana to dissipate the non-stop onslaught of heat. The orb's computations pointed to an explosive finish if she didn't find a solution.

The testing object arrived in the meantime. A crucible half-filled with molten metal rose from the flames in the centre of the chamber. A pair of hooks suspended from the rails pulled the container up and directed it towards Tanya. The main event was about to begin.

As the crucible arrived directly above Tanya, the chains keeping the hooks in a fixed position were released: the giant container of molten metal was going to crush Tanya.

"Gack!"

She cried out and scrambled to produce enough lift to slow it down. Never mind keeping it afloat, Tanya was too preoccupied with her environment to prepare the appropriate spell.

"Was that you mispronouncing the safeword again?" she heard Schugel's distant voice.

Was she? Tanya still had the safeword between her and the container of metal about to squash her. There was no point in bravery if it were to kill her.


	30. Heavy Duty

"Enunciate, Second Lieutenant! The stress test will be suspended on your mark!"

A giant crucible containing molten iron was about to crush Tanya, and Schugel's encouragement was limited to getting her to give up. It was too late to give up; she'd die sooner than his crack team of super Mages, who had supposedly passed this test, reached her. In fact, Tanya suspected that he knew the reaction he'd provoke and decided to goad her, anyway. Whose side did he think he was on?

Definitely not Tanya's. He forced her to get inside a furnace with nothing but her uniform and the experimental Elinium Type 95B operation orb. As promising as the four-core technology looked on paper, it barely held up to the task of keeping Tanya alive in scorching heat. The air vortex, levitation and support spells she relied on kept the cores preoccupied while the remaining processing power was used to discharge the heat accumulating inside the operation orb.

The crucible's shadow broke Tanya's calculations, already strained by the failing vortex. She had to make a sacrifice to adjust and, through elimination, she decided to go for the levitation spell. Her boots touched down on the hot surface, precious seconds whittling away until the soles would begin to melt. The released processing power was immediately channelled into a toxic blend of support spells: painkillers, steroids, stimulants and muscle relaxants thrown in for good measure. She was positive that any substance with this cumulative effect would have been illegal in Japan, but, unlike those substances, support magic could be applied as a near-constant stream as long as the Mage remained conscious.

Remaining conscious turned out to be a compounding challenge. After a burst of support spells, Tanya let the vortex disperse to conserve power. The crucible came into view: falling sideways, metal leaking out. She had to give it her best and she had just once chance at it.

Through clenched teeth, she endured the heat washing over her like a riptide as she raised her arms to project as much lift as the Type 95B could afford.

"Go to hell, you piece of-ungh!"

Her boots caught fire from the hot surface she stood on, the gust of air the spell caused making it worse. The fire-resistant uniform prevented her lighting up like a candle, but it was a matter of seconds until something gave.

There was room for cautious optimism: the spell provided enough lift to buy Tanya wiggle room for the next manoeuvre. Molten metal dripped out of the crucible when Tanya flung it back in the air, reaching all the way to the ceiling. Since the amount of metal inside the crucible was her qualification score, she had to be more precise on the return.

A splash of metal landed close to her. It hissed and burned while cooling. Moving it out of the way with magic was nigh impossible; the substance solidified too quickly for her react in her current condition.

The shadow hanging above her grew. She had to push the crucible into position and find a way to maintain it.

"Second Lieutenant! The scanner says you're still alive. How are you?"

Schugel's taunts were intended for her to flunk the stress test, she was sure of it. There was no way he could be of use to her while he stood outside the furnace, enjoying the view in cool, well-ventilated comfort. He deserved to be the one burning alive, not her. For science.

Tanya grinned from ear to ear when she got an idea that had her pupils swirling from the amount of mana she was ploughing through.

The least she could do was share the anguish with her CO and share she would. Tanya ordered the orb to scan the furnace for any unintended openings to manipulate the air pressure inside and draw in as much cool outside air as she could without breaking the equipment.

Schugel had to sit down and take it. There was nothing in the test specification that prevented Tanya from using this trick. As long as she didn't start a fire outside the furnace, she could maintain the spell and focus on the matter at hand.

With cooler air swirling around her, she took a deep breath and disposed of her flaming boots. They were beyond saving and she was better off relying on magic to get around.

Her choice came with a price: she exceeded the orb's four spell multi-tasking limit, forcing the cores to alternate. Lifting and stabilising the crucible–two absolutely critical tasks–took a tremendous toll on the operation orb. The only way to deal with it was in dual bursts, making the container gyrate in the air, because sacrificing the processing power to keep it perfectly stable would have occupied three cores simultaneously.

Tanya could not afford that luxury, not least due to the hostile environment. The amount of strain the crucible-related spells generated led the used cores to temporarily overheat. Throwing another high-energy spell at those cores would have had disastrous consequences, so Tanya had to fiddle with her mana to flow through the less burdened pair of cores. At the same time, she let the overheated cores relax by processing easier spells: support, cooling and staying above the floor.

A trained eye would have derided her choppy execution, but she was alone inside and she could easily sell her performance as flawless thanks to the heat distorting the view. Tanya was her worst critic, a sign that she was getting a hang of the situation. The crucible gyrating right above her was proof.

It was time to move on to the next phase: hauling the crucible out. Considering the load she was under, going in any direction while afloat was akin to walking on ice. Stopping would be as just difficult as accelerating.

The exit was a stone's throw away, though. A simple push towards it would have sufficed. Synchronising the crucible with her movements was a matter of precision, which Tanya and the orb excelled at. If it weren't for Schugel's promise of a variable load, her anxiety level would have already gone to zero. The crucible and the metal it contained were static as long as Tanya didn't move them herself. That made her suspect a nasty surprise was coming.

 _Do or die._

Tanya was a doer. She thrust herself forward together with the crucible. It was a snail's pace, but her execution would be graded by the amount of metal, not speed, so she focused on keeping the shadow above her head steady.

Schugel had boasted that there were other Aerial Mages who passed the heat stress test. Tanya would rise to the top of the leader board, if there really was one, by conquering two challenges simultaneously. All she had to do was trudge to the end and present the spoils for measurement.

Her confidence increasing with every inch, she could taste the success in her dry mouth, until warning lights disrupted the hellish serenity. The heat level went from unbearable to absurd and, to her dismay, Tanya saw another crucible rise from below. This one was filled to the brim with bubbling hot metal.

She wanted to scream her lungs out, going against her deep-rooted instinct of self-preservation. The variable load has come and it was nothing short of a nightmare scenario. Tanya's half-filled crucible was to be topped up with a full one.

Hooks suspended from the rails above lifted the second crucible, the slightest shift making the contents leak in overflow, the resulting fumes further increasing the difficulty of the challenge.

Tanya faced two choices: escaping with her life or backtracking to rise to Schugel's challenge. The utilitarian inside her begged her to choose the former while the perfectionist had their eyes on the latter. In her mind, she had already passed the test since Schugel was forced to throw everything he had. It was a question of acing it and cementing her name in the annals of history.

Her fireproof uniform was useless against the lava spluttering from the second crucible, which forced her to rely on magic alone to fend off the unpredictable heat. She wasn't sure how magic barriers reacted to lava and she hoped to chaos theory for a lucky dice roll. In this unknown, she was in the clutches of her own ignorance and variables outside her control.

Schugel's patience was running thin: the hooks manipulated the second crucible to shift and begin pouring out its contents. If Tanya wanted to use it to fill hers, she had to do this quickly. Haste was the utter worst course of action she could adopt and she found the rage in her heart to go with it.

Tanya fired a propulsion spell against the furnace's lining, the kickback setting her to slide towards the middle, where metal was about to pour out in a display of manmade brutality. The furnace was a hell on earth created by man, and Tanya's mission was to show hell the middle finger and get away with it.

Alternating her operation orb's cores in pairs to deal with the load above her head, she tested the limits of the power required to keep the crucible afloat. She had to keep it close to avoid a splash of iron melting her face off, well aware that it narrowed her window to get out of the way should the mission reach FUBAR territory.

The trick was accommodating the additional load without blowing herself up. Tanya shaved everything she could off the power dedicated to assuring her survival to buy much-needed wiggle room to handle a tougher load. The cores were going to overhead; that much was certain.

As she placed her crucible underneath the downpour of metal, she felt her breath quicken at the amount of mana the extreme environment sucked out of her.

Metal sloshed over the edges, nearly licking at her bare feet. The second crucible shifted to pour out the entirety of its contents into Tanya's vessel, which was already half full. Greed was going to be the death of her, but it was too late to go back as the metal could not be stopped. If her own crucible started overflowing, it would be nigh on impossible to avoid all of the spills. She had to get out while she had the chance.

Unyielding, she tested propulsion magic against a downward trickle of metal. The metal barely moved, having encountered an updraft suited for moving liquid water more than metal. Tanya's orb didn't have the free processing capacity to deflect the spills with routines normally reserved for artillery shells, and so she came to the realisation that her original plan would result in failure.

Slow and steady would burn to a crisp.

She'd have to wing it, throw caution to the wind along with Schugel's expectations. Tanya targeted the entrance door, cut off the mana supply to the cores maintaining the crucible, allowed support spells to expire and gritted her teeth for the most reckless getaway yet.

Tanya fired a ball of agitated mana into the second crucible to make it keel over to the other side and stop filing her objective. Then, she propelled herself together with the crucible above her head through controlled explosions. The noise deafened her. The vibrations distorted her vision and the rapid changes in pressure made her ears bleed, but she relented.

Like the pulsejets she had seen at the testing facility, she raged on with the power of all four cores, each glowing red hot from abuse.

Schugel was predictably slow to activate the main furnace door unlock mechanism, prompting Tanya to exploit her temporary flight as a window to squeeze the extra spell that manipulated the bulk of the lock's stopping power. This reduced the matter to merely shouldering the door open or, in the crucible's case, making a loud messy noise when it popped the entrance off its hinges.

"Aieee!" Tanya screamed at the welcoming sight of the world at war she came to love. Schugel's frightened expression made her return all the more delectable. He should have worn brown pants that day.

Having flown out of the furnace with a huge load of bubbling metal above her head, she had to figure out a way to stop it, which was easier said than done. She calculated the right amount of force to change its direction and tapped into the operation orb to make the magic happen, only to hear a crude rejection from each of the four cores. They had all overheated and were in recovery mode, refusing to respond to input.

"Eeee!" she continued screaming all the way to the wall in front of her.

The crucible and Tanya smashed into the wall, leaving deep cracks that shook the rest of the furnace hall.

She could accommodate the concussion no worse than she dealt with the shellshock from her own miniature explosions set off inside the furnace, but there was no easy way around getting crushed by the solid weight entrusted to her. Letting herself be plastered in concrete was just the first step.

The cores refused to respond. She scrolled through time and again, to no avail. It was too early for Tanya to become a hero.

She rolled aside as soon as she plonked on the floor to get out of the crucible's landing. It caused an ear-gouging thud, making the whole hall resonate in response.

The fact that Tanya was annoyed by this suggested she wasn't dead yet. She survived Schugel's most dastardly human lab rat experiment yet.

Schugel's face hovered above her prostrated on the floor. "How are you, Second Lieutenant?"

It was a creepy malignant sight she wanted to spit at, but her mouth was too dry to make it happen. All she could muster was a pathetic whistle.

Eventually, she gathered the phlegm to reply: "Go to hell, and see if you come back...jerkoff. Khu…"

"I should have you turn right around and retrieve your boots, but I've prepared for this disappointment and we're barely ahead of schedule. Factory management invites you to join us for lunch."

If her ears weren't bleeding, she would have wept about the development: Schugel was being kind to her. What payment was he going to extort from her for this demonstration of humanity?


	31. Luncheon

It was a crippling success. Tanya had no other way to describe it. Her magic put back together what was broken and she endured the pain of hot water spraying over her rapidly healing wounds.

A mad scientist was waiting for her behind the shower door. Schugel hollered at her once in a while about keeping other people from using it, but this was her time and he had nothing to threaten her with. Barging in on her could have had serious consequences for his record as well as a high likelihood of Tanya being reassigned elsewhere.

In her twisted mind, she was hoping that he would do more than just grip and shake the handle to vent his frustration. She hadn't locked the door, so, if he wanted to yell at her up close and personal, all he had to do was push the door open. She'd welcome the liberating abuse with open arms. She'd even forgive him for making her suffer. It was a fair trade: a chance to spout verbal abuse at her when she was vulnerable in exchange for a one-way ticket out of the Elinium Factory.

 _Come on, Schugel. Show me crazy!_

She knew that Schugel was having a bad time standing idle out there and she was okay with taking the blame. She'd throw in some customary grovelling and chastise herself for being an irredeemable disappointment to further sweeten the deal. Above all, Tanya wanted to be fair with him. Freedom was precious.

The handle shaking stopped. Someone must have approached Schugel and he stepped away from the shower door.

Tanya wasn't going to have her way. And it was looking so promising!

Annoyed, she hit her head against the wall and then faced up with her mouth open. Until the water spray from the shower didn't start flowing down her throat, she hadn't realised the struggle inside the furnace left her with sores in unlikely places. The painkillers were wearing off, which made for a disorienting experience. Numbness and anguish took turns as they washed over her, leaving her to deal with the mess.

Streaks of black soot mixed with her crimson coloured the drain. Tanya was aware of the latter, but didn't see it thanks to the Type 95's glow. She would have preferred to keep it far-far away if it weren't for its capacity to speed up healing. Tanya had to look her best for the lunch with factory management that she was invited to. Burnt eyebrows were a no-go.

Achieving her best was easier said than done because the previous experiment took a toll on her mana pool, resulting in fatigue unknown to people lacking an aptitude for magic. The gaping emptiness from magic overexertion was clawing at her insides and refilling it wasn't as easy as taking a drink. She intuitively knew that she would feel better after a hearty meal, yet the implied food-to-mana transmission mechanism remained a mystery to her.

There had to be a less convoluted way. For example, feeding on residual mana in the atmosphere. Chaotic places like the Elinium Factory had a higher concentration of ambient mana, so they could, in theory, amplify Tanya's abilities.

The operation orb flickered as if to reject her thinking. Without realising it at first, Tanya had gone down the route of theoretical nonsense, Schugel's territory. Mana signatures that differed from her own interfered with spells in unpredictable ways, increasing the difficulty of obtaining the desired result. Failed spells created leftovers, and the issue could snowball like it had in the testing facility, where subsequent deaths of Aerial Mages formed a toxic environment. Tanya had managed to clean it up, but filtering the magic equivalent of nuclear waste through her body was an experience she didn't want to repeat.

She concluded that it was a fool's errand to try restocking on magic in a nuclear wasteland when more palatable options were available. Namely, lunch.

It didn't change the fact she was going to be at a disadvantage compared to the non-Mages at the lunch table. Tanya expected little in terms of empathy from Schugel's colleagues. The Chief of Security she had encountered at the entrance seemed reasonable and expressed concern about her fate, but he didn't stop Schugel from going forward with the cruel experiment and, therefore, Tanya didn't have much of a reason to trust him.

Tanya dried herself thoroughly, using magic to peel water from her hair to speed up the process and make her locks less resistant to the comb. The factory had a very basic understanding of hygiene and good haircare products were predictably absent.

The spare fireproof uniform and replacement boots Schugel brought along proved that he was prepared for the outcome of Tanya's last stress test. Tanya couldn't help blaming him for his conscious decision not to bring shampoo. A man that obsessed with details was bound to encounter the issue, so Tanya's current predicament was his fault.

At times, she thought that her hair was made of stronger material than the comb that routinely got stuck in it. She ended up breaking the one languishing in her locks now out of spite; the military had plenty of combs. Tanya wished the same could have been true to brushes.

Donning her Degurechaff best, Tanya practiced her indifferent expression in front of the mirror before heading out. She had to look and feel bulletproof because Schugel was going to test her mettle at his earliest convenience.

He didn't even wait for her to fully get out the door.

"I take no pleasure in informing you, Second Lieutenant, that you've ranked last on the leader board for the combined heat and pressure stress test."

This was punishment for taking time to get herself together, which was necessary because of Schugel in the first place. In a way, he was making Tanya pay for being subjected to his own cruelty, but one could come up with a backwards justification for it. Had Tanya been better, faster, stronger, she would have considered the stress test a mere healthy challenge, totally proportional to her abilities.

He told the truth when he said that he wasn't pleased with her. The way he said it, albeit possible to misconstrue as sarcasm, was a case of Schugel being Schugel: heartless to a fault. The good news was that Tanya had racked up a ton of experience in dealing with his semantics and this one barely registered on the hostility scale. He didn't like the wait and so he expressed that in a way only he could.

"Oh? Did someone else manage to get out with both crucibles…or am I the only one on the list?"

Tanya's pickings were good, in her own opinion. She had plastered her face into the wall together with a full-ish container of molten metal she had been sent to retrieve. The thought of getting greedy–and stupid–enough to try escaping with both crucibles presented to her hadn't crossed her mind then, but it could have been considered on a purely theoretical level. Not that it was possible; the Type 95 operation orb would have exploded in the process and a standard orb would have let the user experience being deep-fried in bubbling metal.

She figured that the softball question was fair because they were going to have lunch together and she wanted to avoid unnecessary escalation. She didn't need to be told that she was the only one on the leader board, as Schugel had mentioned the stress test had been designed specifically for her. Tanya's rank on the leader board was trivial while no one else was competing and Schugel could have replaced that bit with a number of his non-pleasantries.

"Two crucibles was the optimum solution, yes. At least you are honest in admitting you're purposefully underperforming." He wrote something in his notepad. Possibly, it was a theatrical scribble supposed to intimidate her. Then again, these little things had the tendency of returning to hit her at a bad moment. "Until I expand my test sample, however, your result will be rated as 'adequate'. Keep improving at this pace and I can guarantee that I will uphold my end of the gentlemen's agreement."

Tanya didn't like the sound of additional conditions appearing on the agreement they had struck in his office. She had to complete the testing schedule in order to get Schugel's recommendation for War College. There was no talk of improvement, only getting to the end.

"With due respect, sir…"

"Respect is due," he cut her off. That reminded Tanya that she couldn't badmouth her CO. Mumbling something incomprehensible while mostly unconscious was one thing. The reverberations of ignoring one of his flat warnings could be severe.

To save face, Tanya moved on to the next thing on her mind, "Is there anything of substance I must know about this lunch with factory management?"

"This is not a test, Second Lieutenant. It is not a part of the official itinerary and there is no safeword that I can offer you."

She didn't want to touch the topic of safewords, considering her traumatic experience with them, but Schugel somehow managed to make lunch sound menacing.

"Meaning?"

"You're on your own, Second Lieutenant."

Tanya went pale. Exhaustion played a role, as did running through definitions of "lunch" for one that coincided with "certain death". Having not found one, she gave herself an even stronger fright that she was dealing with an unknown unknown: a real threat that was so well-hidden she had no means of preparing for it.

Schugel laughed. She hadn't heard him laugh before. He looked human, empathic even, and it was evil of him to confuse her this way. He was a monster, a killer. Was he trying to get her to lose her guard?

"Truly, if I had known a mere lunch would bring you such anguish, I would have already made alterations to your testing regimen. What is so terrible about eating at a table with a few grumpy old men?"

It made sense now. From Schugel's perspective, this was just another luncheon. With his status and backing, he had nothing to fear. Tanya, however, was on her own, and the weight of those words was just beginning to sink in.

If she were to fail in front of the other directors, she would own this failure and no one would come to her aid.

She looked at him accusingly. "Men in power, who will assess me based on minimal input."

"That's too much honesty, coming from you. These people have dedicated their lives to the Empire. All they want from you is the motivation to carry on and a confirmation that their hopes have not been misplaced. Come, now."

"The furnace was more direct."

Schugel chaperoned her to the canteen upstairs. They passed many factory workers going in the opposite direction. Their lunch hour must have already ended. She would have liked to treat with factory management in a crowded place because it would have forced them to play fair. People in the top echelons of a large organisation were relentless in the absence of oversight.

"Which is why the furnace came before, not after. According to my estimates, you should be too exhausted to make a definitive embarrassment of yourself, but if there is anything you'd wish to share with the rest of factory management, the floor will be yours."

Once they reached the door to the canteen, Schugel stopped. He got down to Tanya's eye level, put his hands on her shoulders and said, "A word of advice: keep your operation orb out of sight."

Tanya did as she was told and put it underneath her uniform. Its glow was barely visible to an untrained eye.

 _Show time_.

They entered the canteen and saw that only three other people were inside, all sat at the same table. The cutlery and empty water glasses had already been set, and it looked like they were expecting the arrival of Tanya and Schugel.

Tanya's sharp HR instincts took a measure of the three men at the table. To her dismay, she realised that they were doing the same to her. The one sitting at the head of the table, a thin mustachio man with a sanguine complexion, wore a dark blue business suit considered modern at the time. On his right sat a portly bald man in his fifties clad in overalls, and Tanya recognised the Chief of Security next to this man.

Schugel started with the introduction, "Colleagues, this is…"

The Chief of Security interrupted him, "The youngest recipient of the Silver Wings Assault Medal, Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff… Engineering Director, even you would fail to put out this star."

"You've already met our Chief of Security, Second Lieutenant."

Tanya nodded. It was not yet her turn to speak, but she breathed a sigh of relief seeing that the Chief of Security was on her side. She didn't trust him in the least; she was merely happy their proper introduction happened on amicable terms. Judging by the sass, the Chief of Security wasn't afraid of Schugel and was ready to promptly voice any opposition to his initiatives.

"Condolences, Second Lieutenant. No amount of security can stop the disaster incarnate, but my department will use every tool at its disposal to delay the inevitable."

It was almost funny how Tanya's understanding of Schugel matched his. Theatrics aside, he raised her suspicions over failing to protect those entrusted to Schugel. If his opposition was limited to talk and no action, the seat occupied by him might as well have been empty. It would have had the same effect.

The thin man at the head of the table smiled. "Chief of Security, such grim antics are most inappropriate. You are clearly underestimating our honoured guest's potential to deliver. I am the Sales Director at our glorious factory, Ms Degurechaff. Pleased to make your acquaintance." He put out his arm and shook Tanya's vigorously.

Salespeople were ruthless, aggressive and immoral. At least, those were the traits the HR department from Tanya's previous life was looking for. Since the man in front of her was a director, he must have risen through the ranks and embodied all three. He addressed her informally and was all smiles to her, both of which, from Tanya's perspective, were signs of latent aggression. She had to be on her guard to avoid being sold to or, most treacherously, sold herself.

Schugel pointed Tanya to her seat on the Sales Director's left and sat down next to her. The man in overalls opposite to her folded his arms and scowled, a perfect fit for Schugel's initial description of the people she was going to meet.

"You've caused a load of noise earlier. Hauling crucibles is no easy job," the man said in a rough local accent. Tanya had managed to carry one all on her own, highlighting the disparity in strength between an Aerial Mage and a regular person.

Schugel glowed in excitement at the complaint. "And that's the Manufacturing Director. Pay no attention to his mood, Second Lieutenant. Ever since work over transferring my designs to the assembly line has stalled, he's been looking for a scapegoat. He has not found one yet."

"Hand-crafting operation orbs…." The Manufacturing Director spat to the side. "This is a factory, not a jeweller's workshop, Engineering Director. The fact you've failed to produce a test candidate until now should be enough proof as to wherein the fault lies."

The Sales Director intervened, "Colleagues, I understand we're all hungry, but this bickering can wait for after dessert. Tell me, Ms Degurechaff, how are you?"

Tanya's eyelid twitched at him voicing Schugel's favourite question. Her opinion of the Sales Director was dropping like a rock and it was apparent that he didn't care about her answer, just like Schugel. She was a prop he was going to use for personal gain. Still, she was acknowledged and this was her turn to speak. She hated herself for being constricted to a formulaic pose.

"I am honoured to have received the invitation, sirs."

The two men sitting on the opposite side chuckled at her response. The Sales Director shushed them politely, all the while hiding a smirk behind his hand. Tanya looked down, having been made the butt of the joke: he told her to bark, and she did.

"Cut the crap, Second Lieutenant whatshername. We know who you are and what you're here for. Can you do it?" the Manufacturing Director asked all of a sudden, breaking the mood.

Tanya blinked at the vague question. The Manufacturing Director didn't like that.

"Are you able to prove that the Engineering Director's designs aren't–pardon my Francois–horseshit?"

The Sales Director prevented Tanya from answering with a feigned cough. "That was uncalled for, Manufacturing Director. We wouldn't want to ruin our guest's appetite, now, would we?"

Tanya's belly rumbled at the mention of her appetite, diverting gazes to the kitchen. It was strange that no one had come to bring food to the table despite it being set up for such a service. The hot meals had already been plated, ready to be served, just that nobody bothered to bring them to the table.

The Chief of Security came up with an explanation: "The kitchen appears to be understaffed today, but at least we still have a kitchen. The Arsenal should have paid more attention to safety protocols. Dreadful oversight…"

It took Tanya a moment to put two and two together: status prevented the directors from standing up and getting the plates in a disorderly fashion, so someone of lower rank had to do it. Tanya would have done it even if she wasn't a lowly Second Lieutenant because she was famished. Though, considering the importance of this meeting, she decided she would go about it in style, regardless of Schugel's opinion.

"Allow me to compensate," she said. The faint glow under her uniform became brighter as plates were lifted from the kitchen area and transported onto the table, all at the same time.

The Sales Director had gotten uncomfortably close to Tanya while she focused on the plates. He was staring at the glowing red spot on her uniform. "Merciful heavens, is that-"

The Manufacturing Director nearly keeled over in his chair at the sight of his plate descending neatly between the knife and fork. The Chief of Security caught him just in time to prevent him from falling to the floor.

Schugel grinned knowingly and nodded to the others' shock. "The Elinium Type 95 operation orb, the most powerful operation orb in existence."

"T-that's what it can do? Such precision, such poise. And the user doesn't seem to be in agonising pain at all! How are you, Ms Degurechaff?"

She didn't get to answer the Sales Director's facetious question because the Chief of Security came up with a save, "I can't criticise you enough, Engineering Director, for forcing the Second Lieutenant to endure the Type 95 outside a sanctioned testing environment. Isn't it dangerous in ways we do not yet comprehend?"

Schugel shrugged. It was a first in Tanya's experience. "What's incomprehensible about maintaining technological superiority over the Empire's enemies?"

"I agree with the Engineering Director on this. What's the worst that could happen? It'll explode and we'll all die wishing we'd been at the Arsenal. A small price to pay to win the war," said the Manufacturing Director.

The Sales Director lowered his stature and looked Tanya dead in the eyes. "Ms Degurechaff, Tanya, what else can it do?"

"Well…" she recalled the water exercise Schugel had made her do and magically gathered steam lingering in the canteen to fill everyone's glasses with water.

The Manufacturing Director was so enthralled by the sight that he bit his fork instead of the piece of meat on its end. The directors' gazes switched from honing in on Tanya to each other's faces. She exceeded their expectations. It was a win she could claim entirely for herself.

"And-and that's beside the usual bringing fire and fury to the enemy?"

"Fire and fury would be putting it mildly," Tanya said. She hadn't thought pride would be this intoxicating.

"The Type 95 withstood the Arsenal's explosion, which was why Second Lieutenant Degurechaff got to join us today." Schugel closed his eyes as he paused, about to drop a bombshell on his colleagues. "As for demonstrating its other capabilities, I propose we expedite the start of our patron's latest mining project."

The Chief of Security swore under his breath at the implications.

"Rest assured, Chief of Security, we're going to use but a fraction of the Type 95's potential," Schugel continued.

The Manufacturing Director wiped his face clean and stood up. "I'll call the liaison. A new mine close by is exactly what we need to boost production." He then approached Tanya. "If you ever feel like blowing up, make sure you see him die first," he said, pointing at Schugel. He patted Tanya on the shoulder before leaving the canteen.

His mention of a liaison puzzled Tanya. Schugel had invited her to a lunch with factory management, but these were all department heads. They were not the top level executives she presumed them to be. The ones at the top, the ones in charge of strategic decisions that could make or break the Elinium Factory's future were absent from the scene.

The person they referred to, Krupps' liaison, was probably too great a risk for Schugel to take on his first try, so he approached the liaison's generals instead. They were going to relay their respective views, giving the liaison different angles to work with to balance Schugel's claims. Any exaggerations and lies would be effectively filtered out before they could reach Krupps himself.

Just as Tanya thought everything was going smoothly, after seeing off the most unfriendly of the directors, the Sales Director clasped his hands together and took over Tanya's attention with his drilling stare.

"I'd like to see the full extent of this operation orb's destructive potential."

It was a death flag for the Elinium Factory as a whole.


	32. Proxy Fight

The Chief of Security baulked at the suggestion, "You'd need to sacrifice the operator for that. It's the same with all operation orbs…"

It was true that an operation orb could distort reality beyond any recognition if the Aerial Mage using it agreed to cast their life away in the process. Tanya's Silver Wings Assault Medal was proof of this. However, she hadn't given it her all back then, as her intention was to survive the destruction of her operation orb. Had she truly been prepared to sacrifice herself for the Empire, the resulting explosion would have likely engulfed incoming reinforcements, not just the enemy.

She didn't want to imagine the enormity of the damage she would cause by self-destructing with the Type 95 operation orb on her. It was suicide for the Sales Director to request such a demonstration because he would need to rely on Schugel's theoretical calculations to determine the safe observation distance. If forced to partake, Tanya would make sure to violate those calculations and permanently warp reality around her gravesite to teach aggressive know-nothings like the Sales Director that they shouldn't mess with powers they did not understand.

"This is where I must correct you, Chief of Security. The technical design of the Type 95 allows the operator to manipulate mana in stable physical form."

Schugel's claim was met with silence. Tanya had doubts over publicly voicing her disbelief, the Sales Director probably didn't know the meaning of "mana in stable physical form" and the Chief of Security pondered in withdrawal.

Eventually, the Chief of Security raised his hand to ask: "Has this already been verified empirically?"

"We must adhere to the schedule."

Which meant that it wasn't. Schugel had another theory that only a practical test could debunk, with Tanya being slated the role of the guinea pig to make it happen. The operation orb behaved like it wanted to explode while performing menial tasks, so giving it an order that involved a real explosion didn't sit well with her.

The Sales Director dropped his smile and addressed Schugel coldly, "No, Engineering Director, we must show results."

"I've already requisitioned a remote testing site for that purpose."

"The Sales Department will participate in the test."

"I decline the request."

Tanya shuddered at what was going on. Heads of two departments were fighting over resources and responsibilities that Tanya was a part of. As a resource, she didn't have an active role in the discussion and figured that there was a fate worse than being loaned to Schugel as testing personnel. Schugel had a finite-term agreement with the Inspector General of Logistics Office to complete a specific task. Upon completion, Tanya was free to move on to greener pastures. The Sales Department was bound to show a greater amount of imagination in exploiting her talents to slowly bleed her dry. Being geared towards achieving short-term goals, Sales Departments often experienced an above-average rate of burnout and employee churn, a grating issue for an ex-HR manager like Tanya.

It appeared that the discussion was over with Schugel's refusal, but the scheming Sales Director wasn't intending to give up. To him, getting Tanya to show off with complete disregard for her own safety was a matter of winning government orders. While this sentiment may have appeared unintuitive at first, it was a case of maximising personal gain and throwing any associated costs onto Tanya: if her life was on the line, she would do her best to preserve it free of charge, no strings attached. Hence, the Sales Director didn't see a problem with the arrangement. Since there was no such thing as Tanya's side, considering her role as an expendable resource, this was a flawless solution from the Sales Director's perspective.

"Engineering Director, you've an ace up your sleeve and you're wasting it. Once we have irrefutable proof of the orb's most desired capability, we'll never again have to deal with staffing or funding issues."

"I understand that, and I decline your request, respectfully. I am a scientist and I will not allow an uninformed layman's opinion to tamper with the approved testing schedule."

The Sales Director smiled. It was the grin of a shark about to gobble up a baby seal. "Ah, so it's about getting approval."

"Naturally! If the Sales Department gets approval to meddle in my affairs, I'll be able to accommodate the request, regardless of its merits."

What the Sales Direction had suggested was audacious because it was an encroachment on the Engineering Department's area of expertise. Schugel's increasingly impolite rebuttals reflected this, but he had to admit that those at the top of the hierarchy could easily overrule him.

Tanya consoled herself with the knowledge that such intrusive requests were difficult to get approval for. The Sales Director risked a verbal dressing down by taking it too far, which was what Tanya hoped for.

"I-I understand." He stood up, beaming at Tanya. "Thank you for the company, Ms Degurechaff. I'm sure we'll meet again."

She didn't enjoy shaking the Sales Director's hand the second time. His grip was stronger and he made no effort to hide his willingness to fight Schugel over her. It was going to be a fight of two greater evils and she was unlikely to learn how it went until the very end. Tanya grumbled at herself for rooting for the devil she knew.

Once the Sales Director left, the Chief of Security looked at Schugel and said, "From a risk management perspective…"

"I agree," Schugel stopped him from elaborating despite appearing to be deep in thought himself. The disagreement with the Sales Director must have troubled Schugel and he considered ways to prevent the fallout from reaching the top. Schugel's Engineering Department was one of expense while the Sales Department brought revenue to fund the said expense, giving it a stronger hand in any internal negotiations.

"As long as the manufacturing process remains too complicated for the assembly line, you can count on my support, Engineering Director."

Tanya was dumbstruck by the Chief of Security. His apparent alliance with Schugel was temporary. These people really weren't looking out for anyone other than themselves.

The Chief of Security noticed a change in her expression. "Apologies, Second Lieutenant. In these matters, the Empire's needs are the top priority. Having witnessed the end of more than a few of your colleagues, I can safely say that the Engineering Director currently offers a fair risk-reward ratio. Your alternatives here, as you can see, are not as certain."

It was a kind farewell from someone who knew Tanya would rub shoulders with death under Schugel's supervision. To the Chief of Security, Tanya probably wasn't worth much consideration because Schugel was personally responsible for her safety. He cared only that Schugel's inventions didn't endanger the factory workers, and so he was willing to encourage Schugel's preoccupation with Tanya, especially offsite. Her smooth cooperation with Schugel simplified this objective.

Schugel turned his attention to Tanya after long pause, "If you'd excuse us, Second Lieutenant, we have a few details to iron out…"

Tanya expected him to sound tired after the encounter, but there was an air of active hostility about him, and it wasn't just the obstructive Chief of Security that his ire was directed at.

She couldn't see why he would blame her for anything that happened during the luncheon. She was well-behaved, managed to impress his colleagues through precision impossible to achieve with other operation orbs and her performance was bound to reach the ears of those at the top. Tanya clearly aced it, so why did he look upset with her?

The answer had been waiting for her behind the door to the canteen.

"Ms Degurechaff, a word, if we may," she heard the Sales Director's voice.

The early reunion got her to lift her eyebrows high enough that they hid under her hair. "Sales Director, sir…" There was no one else who could overhear their conversation. He had ambushed her.

"You don't have to be so bashful around me, Ms Degurechaff. I've known Schugel for some time and I've seen reports about your predecessors. I imagine you have as well."

He was bold and Tanya had a hard time dismantling the basis for his confidence. Unlike her, the Sales Director didn't have to risk his life several times a day just to get by. Having that unpleasant fact thrust in front of her face gave her a bad vibe about what was coming up.

"Something like that, yes."

"Splendid! Should you feel that their fate is catching up with you, here's my card. The Sales Department will be happy to accommodate a rising star such as yourself, and I'm positive you'll be eager to meet our requirements."

Tanya looked at the card she was given and considered her options. The Sales Director was suggesting betrayal, but treating with the devil put one at a disadvantage because the price to pay was always going to be higher than what was initially bargained for. Taking him up on the offer to ditch Schugel would have an impact on Tanya's career prospects. Inviolable loyalty was valued dearly in the military.

To show him up, Tanya bent the card in two before putting it in her pocket. It was a form of rejection that entailed less disrespect than outright refusing to take the card, yet it drove the point home: Tanya's loyalty was not for sale. Not at the offered price, at least.

"I'm not intending to let fate meddle in my affairs."

"Ah, the road to hell is paved with good intentions." He petted her hair without permission and proceeded to mess it up. He may have done it to mask his irritation with her. "You're going up-up-up with this attitude!"

"Just so you know, I am going to inform my CO of this conversation."

His hand recoiled as she said it and he took a moment to recuperate. "I was counting on it! Not on you being so forward about it, of course, but you do enjoy exceeding expectations, don't you?"

Tanya said nothing. She blew at a strand of hair hanging down to her eyes and realised that it was in worse condition than on a regular morning. The Sales Director hadn't realised the conversation was over and continued standing there, so Tanya decided to encourage him by making her operation orb glow with fresh mana.

Its glow spread to her hair, forcing it to regain its semi-tousled shape. The Sales Director had become aware by then that she was flipping him off, but his greed still had hope that she would bend.

"If I hadn't seen you do it live, I'd have nothing to say that'd save Schugel from losing his job. You're going to give a lot more hard-working people a breather if you convince him to do a full-power public test run. Your CO owes you one. Take care of him while you can!"

He turned to leave with a broad smile. Tanya wanted to punch herself when his real message reached her: she had acted against Schugel's orders by demonstrating the Type 95 to the other directors. Schugel's closely-held secret was out thanks to her and now he was going to receive more funding to continue his research.

To make matters worse, the Sales Department would try to poach her from Schugel and the other directors were bound to put forward procedural challenges to the testing schedule, further lengthening Tanya's tenure under Schugel.

News of any of her failures would also reach more influential people in the military, adding pressure to already lethal experiments.

Tanya had shot herself in the foot four times in one sitting. The road to hell was, indeed, paved with good intentions and Tanya had greatly gone over her quota for good deeds.

"Argh!" she growled as she pulled at the hair she had just tidied up. Things were getting complicated for her and it was only a matter of time until her entanglements became too numerous to follow.

Her life was supposed to be a train ride to success. Schugel and the Sales Director put railroad switches in her way, offering new, unknown routes she could take. It wouldn't have bothered her if she had more control over the said switches or was informed about their activation. For all she knew, her original train may have been derailed and her current ride was heading to the nearest cliff edge.

Disposing of the switches was the simplest solution, but murdering the two culprits involved certain unpalatable trade-offs, such as prolonged incarceration. There was also the case of being unable to stop the train to look around and assess the way forward. How did she allow other people to hijack her life?

When Schugel and the Chief of Security exited the canteen, they found Tanya sulking on the floor. The chatter they had been preoccupied with broke to an awkward silence.

"Something must've gotten in her eye…" the Chief of Security whispered. It was a forced attempt to save Schugel the embarrassment of his temporary employee weeping at work.

"What happened?" Schugel asked in a calm voice. His face betrayed mild astonishment, but he wasn't going to act without concrete input from Tanya.

She pulled the Sales Director's crumpled up card out of her pocket and handed it to Schugel. He offered her a handkerchief in return when he saw whom the card belonged to.

"Most unfortunate," the Chief of Security quipped. "He's more engaged than I imagined."

"Imagination is trivial. Thanks to Second Lieutenant Degurechaff we have a real problem on our hands." Schugel returned the card to Tanya and said, "Keep it. I won't let the Sales Department interfere with my research by taking you away."

Tanya got back to her feet, having calmed down somewhat. Schugel was going to reprimand her, only this once she knew she deserved it. The punishment, however, did not come because Schugel already had other things in mind.

He stood in front of Tanya, his back turned on her, and said, "I'll be grateful for your discretion, Chief of Security."

"Mmm-yes, the situation is rather unusual, even by your standards, Engineering Director. In light of this new development, shall we postpone the next test?"

Schugel grimaced at the assertion. "Don't count on it. If anything, she's now more eager to blow off some steam. Isn't that right, Second Lieutenant?"

Tanya didn't know what to say. It sounded like she was in a lot of trouble, having made an embarrassment of herself in front of the Chief of Security and ignited a conflict with the head of another department, but Schugel was looking at her with killer determination, not spite. Was he holding back in the presence of his peer?

The Chief of Security didn't wait to hear Tanya's response, letting silence speak for her, and went downstairs. "I'll make the final preparations, as agreed upon."

Schugel stood there until the retreating steps dissolved in background noise. Tanya's heartrate lost its rhythm, dishevelled by her inability to choose fight or flight. If Schugel was going to unleash his wrath, there was little she could do to prevent him from permanently scarring her record. She had absent-mindedly bet her career on a flashy parlour trick and lost. In her previous life, such a foul-up would have been grounds for immediate dismissal. She had no illusions that this world would be nearly as lenient.

"The Sales Director was the reason why I asked you to keep your operation orb out of sight. Do you now understand why?" he asked in a calm, collected tone. Tanya didn't need her HR pedigree to tell a storm was brewing underneath his façade.

He was going to force an admission out of her. Schugel's cruelty was omnipresent, applicable before, during and after exacting punishment. Presented a question she could not escape from, Tanya sighed to herself and nodded, her head remaining lowered in the end.

"Good!" Schugel grinned, further terrifying Tanya about what was going to happen to her. "Congratulations are in order, Second Lieutenant! You've done exactly as instructed and you gave us a show that utterly dishevelled the Manufacturing Director. With the Sales Department's eagerness to push forward the testing schedule, funding should be a non-issue for the next few months."

Tanya's paranoia had gone all the way to visualising her sentencing in a war tribunal by the time she acknowledged that Schugel was, in fact, happy. It didn't make sense. She was guilty! Was he mad or stupid not to see that?

"But…the problem?"

She kicked herself mentally for continuing to dig her own grave when her funeral was no longer certain.

"It is a problem when other departments decide it's their right to meddle, but it doesn't look like they've succeeded thus far, have they?"

The tarnished card in Tanya's pocket told her that he was right. Tanya resisted the Sales Director's temptation and scored loyalty points all the while selfishly looking out for her own best interest.

Instead of feeling satisfied with herself over expertly manoeuvring out of the precarious situation, she couldn't help being bitter: Schugel manipulated her to appear weaker and gain favours with the other department heads. The Sales Director hadn't realised that Schugel would be able to exploit his meddling to fund research and, invariably, extend Tanya's placement at the testing facility.

Her record was safe. She was just more likely than ever to die under Schugel's supervision.

"Leave the Sales Director to me, Second Lieutenant. That failure of a Mage ought to know his place. If he had gotten his untrained hands on the operation orb, he'd have prematurely given us the demonstration he yearned for…. Why are you so glum, Second Lieutenant? Did somebody die?"

Tanya glared at him for playing her. He knew full well what he had done: he made her bait in his plot to get more funding and he wasn't going to apologise for it. She had specifically asked him for information about the lunch meeting and he opted to keep her in the dark. Now she had to deal with the prospects of being poached by a department worse than Schugel's as well as the questionable allegiance of the Chief of Security. The latter unnerved her more because she was unaware of his standing in the organisation, but a person bent on minimising risks was unlikely to grow more fond of her with the Type 95's testing schedule nearing completion.

Her life train had already been hijacked. It was a question of who was going to make off with the spoils.

"My shame, I think."

"We'll see if blowing up a mountain can bring it back to life, then."

He said it like it was nothing, leaving Tanya's hair to spring out of control in bewilderment. She did not mishear him. The explosion at the Arsenal wasn't enough for one day.

"That sounds like it'd need a safeword."


	33. Weapon of Peace

Schugel sneered. "Safeword? Pay attention, Second Lieutenant. This is not a stress test. We're going to blow up a mountain."

Tanya couldn't shake the feeling of gut-wrenching wrongness about to befall her. The Type 95 operation orb could do it and more, but she hadn't practiced offensive magic of this scale yet. In fact, all of the tests she had taken part in were defensive in nature. She had imagined that she would have started off with some practice dummies or volunteers from the mad scientist community.

Albeit venting her frustrations on a mountain had a liberating appeal to it, Schugel was the one suggesting it, so there had to be a catch–an ugly one at that. The destruction must have been cleared on the highest level and her trust in the sadistic hacks acting as Schugel's handlers had already been dismantled and was about to degrade into subatomic particles. The ramifications of the Type 95 going haywire in the presence of hundreds of people reignited Tanya's paranoia of meeting her end in a war tribunal.

"I can't see the difference between-"

"Vision impairments at your age? How embarrassing! I'd suggest oculars if your eyes were of any importance to the upcoming festivities."

Schugel wasn't intending to let her have it. She had to admit that she walked into a semantic trap and lost the right to complain about the procedure. This was an equipment test in everything but name, and it was stressing her out.

As they were about to head outside, Schugel stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "Brain damage, on the other hand, could be an issue. Have you experienced any as of late?"

"I think I'm experiencing it right now."

"Be sure to notify me when you have debilitating certainty. My colleagues in Berlun would be excited to perform brain surgery on an Aerial Mage."

Brain surgery hadn't been on Tanya's list of ways the world was out to kill her until that moment. Schugel managed to expand her horizons on the topic to an unimaginable degree and he was just getting started.

A crowd of people had gathered outside. Factory workers, soldiers and the few familiar faces she saw were saluting her arrival. Everyone was lined up in a way that formed a corridor leading up to the Big Robertha howitzer. Its enormous barrel was primed at a mountain on the far end of its firing range.

"What's happening?" Tanya looked to Schugel for consolation. Those happy men were death envelope stuffing waiting to happen. It was dangerous to have so many people in close proximity. Several unknown magic signatures she sensed, likely of the Elinium Factory security team intermingled with the onlookers, were nothing compared to hers.

The Manufacturing Director slapped his hand on her shoulder, startling her. "You are. Schugel's finally come up with something useful by putting together this so-called remote mining rig."

"It looks like a huge howitzer to me…"

"You of all people should know that looks can be deceiving."

Tanya ignored the Manufacturing Director's lecturing tone. She was certain that Schugel had used the howitzer to shoot her into the sky during the SAD test. If anything, it confirmed that the howitzer worked and was safe enough to fire little girls from. Not that it improved Tanya's dreary mood.

Schugel beamed at the boisterous welcome. A sense of pride rose in his chest. "Big Robertha is a weapon of peace. While she doesn't discriminate targets, mining is her intended purpose."

The Manufacturing Director offered Tanya a spyglass to get a good look at her target. "Over there. Pretty, ain't it? Reports say it's got enough coal to keep us in business for a hundred years. All we ne needed was a tool to crack it open."

Mountaintop removal mining existed in Tanya's previous life and it coincided with the Manufacturing Director's description of the process. Then again, Schugel had said that she was going to blow up the mountain, not take a little off the top. The misunderstanding explained why both directors, normally at odds with each other, were elated.

The Chief of Security came into view toting a box of goggles with thick black lenses. "Preparations are complete, Engineering Director. You may fire when ready."

"Is the Sales Director still on site?" Schugel asked when he received his pair.

Tanya shifted her spyglass to the road leading towards the mountain. "Nope." A convertible with a scalp remarkably similar to that of the Sales Director behind the wheel was speeding to oblivion. "You're probably going to have a job opening soon…" It would serve the Sales Director right for picking on Tanya. It would also prove that life wasn't completely unfair.

"The mountain has been cordoned off for this event. Any commuters beyond the established roadblocks are safe, unless the Engineering Director has made a serious calculation error." The Chief of Security moved the tip of Tanya's spyglass to locate the roadblock that was going to stop the Sales Director.

She has learnt her lesson: _Life's unfair, always._

"I'll leave that to the Second Lieutenant," Schugel grumbled. He grabbed Tanya's spyglass to replace it with safety goggles before ushering her to get a move on.

Tanya thought some more about her lesson to add: _And then you die._

There was no getting out of this, whatever it was. She wasn't ready to fire an offensive spell. One mistake and the agitated mana would detonate on the spot. How did he expect her to deliver the blow all the way to the mountain? Aerial Mages used rifles, not howitzers.

Looking at the goggles in her hand, she couldn't piece this puzzle together. "Sir, you said that my eyes were irrelevant for this task."

"They are."

She noticed that spectators were also putting on safety goggles upon her ascension to the Big Bertha's firing platform.

"Then, what are these glasses for?"

"To preserve your eyes for later use, of course. Long-distance mining can get…bright."

Tanya shivered at the feeling of déjà vu. She had heard these words while testing the Type 95X, the unconstrained operation orb that had overwhelmed her sanity. The Type 95B she was using had a number of safety features that reduced the risk of the orb and the operator going out of control. It was still abhorrently sensitive and required more mana to keep the safeguards powered, but its effect on Tanya's sanity was akin to a slow needling trickle. The Type 95X applied the sledgehammer to that equation.

The closer she got to Big Robertha, the stronger her discomfort became. This wasn't a case of paranoia; there was something about the howitzer that warned her about a relapse waiting to happen and her operation orb was reacting to it.

She realised what it was when she spotted an unusual compartment next to the firing mechanism. The size and shape was identical to her operation orb's. She touched the surface to confirm it, prompting an immediate surge in activity from the Type 95, and turned to Schugel with a questioning expression.

"Big Robertha has the power we need, but she lacks the accuracy," Schugel explained. "This is where you come in, Second Lieutenant. Make any corrections you find necessary to guide the shell to its target."

With a nod for Tanya to proceed, he took to the steps to get off the firing platform. He couldn't get far because something was pulling him by the sleeve. It was Tanya.

"Sir?"

Her concerned expression seemed to baffle him. Aerial Mages routinely worked as spotters for artillery fire and were well-versed in its operating principles, yet he was demanding something else entirely. Her body knew it, her sanity knew it and the erratic flickering of her operation orb confirmed the rest. Tanya did not want to be close to Big Robertha when it would fire. Schugel had to reconsider. He had to!

"Insert your operation orb to complete the firing circuit when you're ready. That is all." He roughly pulled his sleeve out of her grip.

"Sir!"

"This is not a test, Second Lieutenant. I am not expecting questions from you."

Schugel's steps were followed by a light shimmer; the factory's security team raised a barrier to separate Tanya from the crowd gathered to cheer her on. It was naïve of them to try. Tanya had lowered her magic interference to a minimum, making her presence appear small to anyone snooping. The thought that her focus alone would be enough to shatter the barrier brought a bitter smile to her face. They were probably better off asking her to erect a barrier of her own to protect them from her exploding guts, should the howitzer misfire.

Tanya didn't want to test that theory. She didn't want to relive the stress of begging the explosive around her neck to last a second longer. Her mind, broken up into segments to operate the orb's cores, was in a constant state of flux over bonds presumed unbreakable being severed on a whim. The operation orb was taking a toll on her sanity, emotions, intelligence and health in ways she did not have the capacity to analyse properly. To do so, she had to dispose of it, but there was never a guarantee that she'd be able to piece herself together after every run. Try as she might, the damage compounded over time and the unseen wounds did not have the chance to heal.

She ripped the operation orb off its chain and inserted it into Big Robertha's compartment.

A low-pitched noise reverberated in her head as the orb interfaced with the howitzer. The sound made her feel weak in her knees and it was the last reminder she received that she had a physical body until Schugel's inventions initiated a countdown she had no means of stopping.

Her mana flowed into Big Robertha through the operation orb, allowing her a glimpse of the howitzer's inner workings. She didn't want to see them. She tried to reject the information, but the orb rebelled against her wishes and started producing a dangerous amount of heat the very instance it registered her refusal.

It was the shell. It was the shell all along. After Schugel put her in an artillery shell of her own and fired her into the sky, she should have realised that there was more to the method than whimsical cruelty. Schugel had been integrating his daft operation orb technology into other weapons and he didn't stop there.

The reason her operation orb was reacting violently to the howitzer was the fissile material inside the artillery shell. Schugel had replaced the standard warhead with elinium, the same substance the operation orb's cores were made of. It was difficult enough to handle the tiny amount in the operation orb. Tanya braced herself for an outcome worse than a repeat of the Type 95X test when she got a measure of the shell's contents.

Tanya's consciousness wavered, jumping between her focus on the operation orb and a tiny ring of light seen from inside the howitzer's barrel. She wanted to keep it steady at the operation orb, separating herself from the shot, but the immense pull from the elinium warhead reduced her ability to affect the direction of her mana.

With all of her internal faucets forced open, she realised that the warhead was going to suck her dry before it fired. Letting the perspective switch to that of the warhead only sped up the process. Her body failed to register any stimuli and she had no means of severing her connection with the elinium inside the warhead.

Then, it dawned on her: the meaning behind Schugel's order to guide the shell. Why didn't she realise it sooner?

Big Robertha recoiled from the deafening explosion spilling from the edge of her muzzle. The shell was sent flying towards it target, Tanya's consciousness in tow. Her body had already experienced this velocity and the fact that it was still on the firing platform provided some solace. Her sense of self, however, was rushing to bash headfirst against a mountain.

If she wanted to, she could use the absurd amount of mana coursing through the projectile to veer off course to spite Schugel. He'd be forever ridiculed as the engineer who built artillery that missed a literal mountain. She ended up reconsidering because it was petty. Schugel deserved to pay for everything he had done to Tanya and her predecessors at the testing facility.

By the time she would have been finished with him, he'd have wished he was the mountain. Tanya made herself that promise as her consciousness spun around the tip of the shell, whizzing above farmland to strike her target with the hammer of civilisation.

Her mind's eye was open wide for the moment the shell scratched against the hard rocks, piercing through into darkness until the detonator clicked into action.

Light swallowed everything in its path. It expanded in all directions simultaneously, peeling off and cutting through the mountaintop, blinding the farmland and scorching clouds without resistance. This was the ultimate expression of release. Silence ensued.

The flash extinguished itself, giving rise to a cascade of fire, smoke and pressure the likes of which this world had not seen before. The chaotic reaction shook Tanya to the core, pulling her consciousness back into her body.

A stinging headache greeted Tanya in the waking world. She found herself lying down on the platform, bleeding from the nose and sick to her stomach. She assumed that she must have collapsed during the experience and the churning sensations made her wish she had stayed that way.

The food she had wolfed down backed up, spluttering out of her mouth in slimy chunks. She coughed, hacked and wheezed until the spasms subsided.

Swearing under her breath, she wiped her mouth and sat up, resting her head against the howizer's frame. She removed the cumbersome goggles and glared at the mountain bitterly. A pillar of smoke had raised the initial explosion high into the sky and gained a stark resemblance to a mushroom.

 _It can't be,_ she told herself and immediately shook her head at her own disbelief. _No, it shouldn't be, but it is. What have I done…_

The crowd roared in applause at the unprecedented destruction while the little girl who made it happen sat there next to a pool of her own vomit, trails of blood and snot curving past her lips, and stared blankly at nuclear fallout.


	34. Fallout

Unthinkable. Tanya could not believe that she had just unleashed the most devastating weapon of mass destruction ever devised. The chain of events this would set in motion made her want to scream her lungs out, but the experience left her so drained that she lowered her head in shame, hugging herself.

Schugel was in awe. He laughed boisterously, his arms raised into the sky, marvelling at the mushroom cloud that blocked out the afternoon sun. The raging inferno ignited by the blast rolled down the mountain to swallow all life in its path. Trees, buildings and even people who chose to ignore evacuation orders were reduced to ash. The hammer of civilisation has struck decisively, without mercy.

"Superb! Second Lieutenant, this is a triumph!" Schugel cheered.

The Manufacturing Director and Chief of Security were also overtaken by excitement. Everything had gone according to plan. Tanya guided the elinium-tipped artillery shell to the mountain and laid bare the rich coal deposits sealed within. The black smoke at the foot of the explosion was a clear indication of the overburden's successful removal. From their perspective, this was an implausibly efficient take on mountaintop removal mining. The Big Robertha howitzer performed beautifully and so did its fleshy component, Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff.

"Why are you not enthralled with the progress we've made today?" Schugel asked her on approach.

He ignored the tears, streaks of bloody snot and the vomit stains, anticipating Tanya to mirror his broad smile. Tanya couldn't force herself to do it. A thin line separated genius from madness and Schugel had already crossed it. The fools from the Elinium Factory who were chanting his name could be forgiven for not knowing any better.

But not Schugel. He knew exactly what was going on and the consequences it could have. Weapons of mass destruction only brought death and misery. Perhaps, it shouldn't have surprised her that Schugel was behind the development of the first nuclear bomb in this world. He was the disaster incarnate, after all.

She spat to her side to clear her throat. Her stomach was still unsure if it wouldn't rather pull itself inside out, and her other internal organs were no better. Firing Big Robertha instantly depleted her mana reserves to the last drop, a state of powerlessness Tanya hadn't experienced before. Having gotten overly reliant on mana to get about, she now had to deal with the fragility of her tiny body. Support spells were beyond her current capability. Tanya felt a chilling numbness when she tried to force her internals to behave. Her magic, yanked away without her consent, wasn't there anymore. A pitch-black hollow had taken its place.

Tanya found her mind increasingly shrouded in bitterness, self-pity and an unrelenting hunger she couldn't quench. It was a cocktail of emotional and physical poison she wouldn't have wished on a mortal enemy. It was driving her to the brink.

She realised that she had blacked out during her introspective lapse when she saw Schugel up close, trying to shake her awake. Tanya greeted him with a second helping of sick. This one landed on his shoes. He was visibly displeased, but couldn't do anything about it, given the successful detonation. The crowd of factory workers also wanted to see their heroine, the one who supposedly secured their jobs for decades to come.

Schugel expected her to smile and wave at them even though it was madness. All of those people would unknowingly march to their deaths by mining coal at ground zero. She refused to encourage them or take responsibility for the now-unavoidable tragedy.

In the end, her reluctance to play along had to face the facts: she was a soldier, who could not disobey an order, and Schugel has made his wishes clear. She was to smile and wave. The sooner he got what he wanted out of her, the sooner he'd leave her alone, and Tanya was desperate to get away from everyone. She felt filthy inside and out, and the guilt would never wash off.

"You were right to have faith in the Second Lieutenant, Engineering Director. The ambulance I've requested was unnecessary."

"And we won't need no fire brigade seeing that the fire's putting itself out so fast. My men are ready to start digging as soon as the dust settles."

The Chief of Security and the Manufacturing Director were with Schugel on this. They didn't share Tanya's concerns over detonating a nuclear weapon in the middle of the Empire's territory. Without knowing it, they've jettisoned the factory's security protocols by sealing the fates of the people needed to keep the factory open. The miners were just the first step; the contagion would persist throughout the supply chain.

The crowd was beginning to disperse to return to their duties, leaving only a small service crew and the three directors to accompany Tanya. As the number of spectators whittled away, Tanya's sombre demeanour crawled out from behind the mask of positivity she had put up on Schugel's orders.

"No…"

It wasn't enough to change the mood. The Manufacturing Director patted her on the back and laughed. "You've done your part, Degurechaff. Don't be greedy."

"You don't understand…you'll die if you go there! In fact, we need to leave before the wind changes direction." She may have been weakened to the point she could collapse at any moment, but she mustered up the strength to oppose factory management. It was her estimate that they would be more inclined to listen now that they had to factor in her state and accomplishments.

Schugel intervened as he saw the other directors' questioning gazes. Tanya's dissent was his responsibility. "Is there something on your mind, Second Lieutenant?"

"Fallout!" she exclaimed unintentionally.

The rush of anger she experienced upon seeing Schugel roll his eyes brought her down to the ground. She had to calm herself and avoid overexertion just to keep her face from hitting the dirt, but submission guaranteed that the window of opportunity to be heard by the higher-ups on this matter would close forever. They wouldn't go back on a decision after investing too much time and effort, nor would they factor in her identity. Come tomorrow, the Chief of Security and the others would treat her like any other testing personnel. It had to be now or never.

"I'm sure the miners will take care to bring respirators, as usual. Despite all you've achieved, you find time to dwell on such irrelevance," Schugel complained. He walked up to Tanya, who struggled to sit up, and lightly nudged her side with his shoe. "Get up, Second Lieutenant. This type of behaviour does not befit an Aerial Mage."

He wouldn't even put out his hand to help her up. At this point, Tanya wondered if he wasn't expecting gratitude from her for receiving a nudge instead of a kick.

"Bring your Type 95. I want to analyse the data it has collected so far."

A kick would have been more apt, Tanya concluded. The operation orb was bound to activate at the first touch and she was unable to accommodate its mana drain. Standing up on legs that felt like rubber about to bend in an unexpected direction was embarrassing enough.

She leaned against Big Robertha as she got to the firing platform. The operation orb, still in the firing circuit, had been deactivated, but Tanya could sense it snooping for mana to bring it back into action.

If it was thirsty, it could try drinking from Tanya's dry lake. She reached out to grab it, having neglected to perform mind segmentation or any other mental prep exercise, and saw it flash red momentarily before cracking at the centre and falling apart in its casing.

Schugel was gobsmacked when she presented him the shattered operation orb. He quietly guided her to his office upstairs, taking breaks every few steps to give her a moment to recuperate. Someone ignorant of Schugel's nature would have found this caring of him. Tanya, however, knew that he was just stalling to cope with the shock of his invention failing for apparent no reason. The knowledge that normally gave him the upper hand in a discussion about operation orbs wasn't there anymore.

Had Tanya been less exhausted, she would have figured out a way to exploit his moment of weakness. Instead, she allowed him to help her sit down in a comfortable chair. It was a relief that wouldn't last, though.

"Tea?"

Tanya blinked slowly in agreement, a signal less taxing than a nod, and kept her eyelids down while he rummaged for the essentials. No nagging or verbal abuse, just the homely sound of cups clinking towards a small coffee table, a kettle steaming in the background. Schugel wasn't used to treating guests because it was his assistant's job. Tanya had assumed that the assistant died during the Intelligence Bureau's raid on the testing facility, yet she was beginning to doubt herself: her imagination may have filled too many blanks left by the chaos.

The truth would come out eventually. The Elinium Factory didn't have barracks or living quarters–if it did, they may have been destroyed by the Arsenal's explosion–so she would return to the testing facility by nightfall. The enemy spy that had infiltrated the facility was probably still at large.

It amused Tanya that the issues she had been focusing on appeared distant all of a sudden. Contrary to the first impression, the testing facility offered a simple challenge with few moving parts. Reining in the Type 95 operation orbs was difficult, but she had clear rules of engagement to rely on. Landing in the middle of a corporate power struggle at the Elinium Factory left her with entanglements likely to burden her in the future.

Schugel poured Tanya a cup of black tea. The scent carried by the vapour got her to reopen her eyes in excitement: it suggested something more filling than tea leaves.

"I don't know whether you like biscuits, but you should take plenty…"

There was a fruit plate on the side, which Schugel thoughtfully avoided mentioning because Tanya wasn't in the mood for apples or pears. She didn't really care about biscuits, but her stomach was so angry with her that even stale baked goods tasted heavenly. Poured over with sweet black tea, the concoction drew out some of Tanya's natural colour.

"I'm showing a great deal of consideration for your state, Second Lieutenant. We've just measured your mana pool capacity by depleting your reserves, which, I am aware, is not a pleasant procedure, but I need you to explain this to me: what did you do to my invention?" He put the operation orb in front of her. If it weren't for the tightly fitting casing, the cracked crystalline elements would have fallen out.

Tanya shrugged, busy stuffing herself with carbs.

"It was shot into the air, subjected to great heat and pressure to come out unscathed. What is it that you've done that could damage it this much?"

Schugel took out a knife and a tiny screwdriver to dismantle the case. With the top removed, it was easy to see that the orb's internals had spiderwebbed. He was dismayed by the revelation and shook his head as he picked out the pieces until the worn metal case was all that remained on the table.

"Look, Second Lieutenant! Do you see? Rust! Rust inside the orb! You could have doomed us all with this irresponsible behaviour. How could you let rust inside the operation orb? No, what did you do to let it inside? Second Lieutenant, you must answer me. This is a worrisome development!"

She had figured it was made of gold or other rust-resistant materials, but it made sense that budget constraints forced Schugel to do it the old-fashioned way. The military needed a powerful operation orb, not a powerful piece of jewellery that doubled as an operation orb. The implications brought a temporary smile on Tanya's face: she found a flaw in Schugel's handiwork.

The smile faded when she recalled how she discovered the flaw. It was true that the orb was made of potent stuff that resisted the elements. The orb's sensitivity, however, suggested that parts of it could be susceptible to damage if certain conditions were met. Tanya had to admit that said conditions were on the elaborate side.

"I took a bath with it."

"You…what?"

"I used it as a light source and it…fell into the bathtub."

Tanya averted her eyes in shame and munched down on the last biscuit. Schugel was as surprised about the reason as she was about saying it out loud.

"Thank you for sharing that, Second Lieutenant. I have not considered this possibility when designing its water resistance. Operation orbs are not normally submerged in hot soapy water. I'll need to update the technical manual…and add anti-corrosive coating to the lining."

With that, he put the broken orb's parts away and poured Tanya more tea. She stifled the urge to ask if he was mad at her, aware that Schugel could be deceptively constructive before suddenly reforming to his rotten self.

"Regardless, you're in no condition to operate an orb, so there will be no harm in giving you this instead."

He put a small black box on the table. It looked heavy for its size and reminded Tanya of a kind of container that spelled trouble. Her suspicions were confirmed once he opened the box, causing a brief pop of blue light. A brand new Type 95 lay inside.

"What is that?"

In her depleted state, Tanya couldn't use magic to immediately identify the orb. Its multi-core structure put it as either a Type 95B or Type 95X, provided Schugel hadn't invented a new model for this occasion. She took the opening flash, disregarding its low intensity, as a warning that it could be the unconstrained Type 95X. Schugel's mysterious expression fed into her worry.

"You'll have to activate it to find out."

Tanya has seen through his game and found a way to subvert it. She carefully turned the orb in its box to see the reverse side. The Beta symbol was engraved there, letting Tanya breathe in relief. There was no harm in taking it, even though Schugel continued giving her a funny look. To make him stop, she moved in on the offensive. Schugel couldn't escape her questions now.

"I agree with your assessment; I can barely walk on my own, so operating this orb is out of the question. There is something that concerns me more than my condition, though. Elinium, the material the Type 95's cores are made of. What is elinium?"

"I'm an engineer, not a geologist. Elinium is merely one of the many minerals I tested in my search for a candidate for the perfect core. I am yet to find a better-functioning alternative."

Tanya wasn't happy with the non-answer she got. While it was an obvious sign that he didn't want to have a serious discussion, she had already lost by backing down outside and was intent on evening out the score.

"Better than, for example, diamonds?"

Schugel laughed. "Gemstones have been used as magic aids for centuries. Perhaps, it's best not to pursue complicated topics while you're this exhausted."

No talk of disappointment, failure to focus on the matter at hand or asking how she was. Tanya interpreted it as implied permission to keep trying until she encountered one of the aforementioned dead end flags.

"Once again, I agree with you, sir. I would not have pressed if I didn't find the matter important. What is it about elinium that set it apart from the other materials you've tested?"

"That, Second Lieutenant, is a state secret."

Both folded their arms. It was going to be a stalemate at this rate and Tanya would have to withdraw empty-handed.

"I need to know what I'm dealing with to make the most of it."

"No, Second Lieutenant. You need to follow instructions and complete the testing schedule."

Tanya added "death by instructions" to her internal list of things to avoid. She had to change her tactic to break through. She looked around the office for points of interest. Schugel had put the broken orb pieces away next to a nutcracker figurine on his office desk, which gave Tanya an idea.

She nonchalantly left her seat to take one of the broken pieces and shoved it in Schugel's face. "This is proof that you haven't thought of everything that can happen and I'd rather not sacrifice myself to a fault of yours that could be prevented. Such an outcome would put a dent in your schedule, wouldn't it?"

"Somewhat." Schugel raised his head and thought for a while. He addressed Tanya only after she returned to her seat: "The current situation is the result of the user's…unexpected actions. This would not have occurred in any of the testing scenarios."

Tanya could spin his words in two ways. One, he admitted that she discovered something he'd have never found on his own, which warranted a pat on the back and some gratitude. Two, the probability of someone taking a bath with an active Type 95 operation orb was so low that it was pointless to discuss. Tanya's case hinged on the the first interpretation.

"What's to say I won't come up with more ways to invalidate your research?"

"That is what I'm hoping for, Second Lieutenant. You won't invalidate my research–it's beyond reproach–but I encourage you to try assessing it with a critical eye. You might have input the rest of the science community failed to bring to my attention throughout the years."

That was Schugel informing her that the second interpretation was the right one. Tanya's challenge put her at odds with the science community, which had more time and brain power to look for holes in Schugel's work. In theory, it was her cue to give up. Tanya, however, preached practice above all else. She couldn't back down after the backhanded insult, either.

"If this is what I think it is, I'd like to suggest a wager."

"Wagers are non-statutory, Second Lieutenant."

Schugel's warning showed that he understood their respective positions and could stop the conversation at any time. As her CO, he could reprimand her for the unprofessional behaviour and bring the matter further up the chain of command, but her initial wager was that he wouldn't. Schugel adhered to formalities that excused him from trouble, which would have explained how he managed to survive the musical chairs of the military-industrial complex.

Entertaining Tanya on the idea was beneficial to him because it gave him additional leverage over her fate. Having received the formal warning, Tanya would be implicating herself by elaborating further and have nothing to blame him for. She was counting on him taking the bait to let her finish. Schugel was no fool and would, therefore, accept a challenge he was sure to win.

"Precisely why I'm offering one to you, sir. It is my belief that elinium is a hazardous substance, which should not be used in operation orbs or any other military equipment."

"How do you suppose you are going to justify this nonsense?"

Tanya had to level her excitement to avoid blowing her cover. He thought that she was playing into his hands while, in fact, the opposite was happening. She would use Schugel's arrogance to challenge his research.

"Simple, Engineering Director. You wear one of your toys for a day and see what happens."

"And if the conclusion is 'nothing', what is there to gain from this arrangement?"

She hadn't thought about this part. She hadn't even thought that she would get to this part because she was too busy winning. Was he going easy on her? If he was, then he would accept her impromptu reward for bearing with her.

"I won't complain about the next ridiculous test you come up with."

Schugel nodded to himself. The funny look was gone and Tanya dreaded that he could stiff her in the end.

"I see. In that case, you won't complain about the next item on your itinerary and I will begin disproving your baseless accusation upon our return to the testing facility."

"That's not how wagers work!" she exclaimed. He seemed to accept and reject her conditions at the same time. It sounded like a win-win scenario, in which both parties got what they wanted, but it actually felt like a lose-lose, dumping all of the losses onto her. The fact that Schugel got his spoils first under this agreement didn't sit well with Tanya.

"I never said I was agreeing to a wager. We'll call it a valuable lesson for you, Second Lieutenant."

In other words, he cheated. This must have been his plan all along: let Tanya have a hollow victory. She couldn't help pouting at the realisation.

"Whatever."

"I've summoned the Military Police to pick you up. They should be at the gate right now."

Tanya hid the operation orb Schugel gave her and stormed out of his office. Despite a few kinks, her scheme was working and the MP escort meant that she was leaving the Elinium Factory at last. She's made a lasting impression on its staff, for better or worse, and it was going to be another rung on her career ladder.

Outside, she recognised the MP waiting for her in the car. It was one of Schugel's surviving confidantes. Considering that Schugel locked in his gains early by taking away her right to complain about the very next task, Tanya would have preferred to see a fresh face in his stead. The MP owed Tanya a favour, but his involvement suggested foul play.

"Hi."

"Second Lieutenant, you're alive. That's nice, I guess."

Tanya took a seat next to the driver, who didn't look like he was in a hurry. "Are we going or what?"

"Schugel's joining us for the ride, so that probably makes it 'or what'."

"What?!"

She didn't want to sit in the rear.


	35. Blindfolded

The MP behind the wheel raised an eyebrow at Tanya's angry huffing as she disembarked.

"Second Lieutenant, where are you going?"

"The back seat."

It was unlike Tanya to care this much about seating arrangements. She was perfectly content with sitting in the back on her way to the Elinium Factory. The only difference now was the identity of the second passenger about to join them, Schugel.

The door slammed as if to confirm the MP's reason to panic. Tanya followed the pecking order and, by doing so, threw the driver under the bus that was her boss.

"But…that means…Schugel will be sitting next to me!"

She got comfy in the rear, making it obvious that her decision was final. "Sucks, doesn't it?"

Had Schugel found her sitting in the front, he would have literally shown Tanya her place and the show would have lasted for the duration of the trip. If the MP had any grievances about the current arrangement, he was welcome to express them on the battlefield in the North. Pissing off Schugel was the most straightforward method of getting a transfer order there, a thought Tanya kept in her mind.

"Don't worry about it. It's not like you would've gotten any views in the first place. Catch!"

"Eh?"

Just as Tanya was about to close her eyes and relax, a piece of black cloth was thrown in her face.

She glared daggers at the driver through the rear view mirror. The intensity of the magic in her glare was sufficient to make cracks appear on the mirror's surface. Surprisingly, Tanya's warning didn't wipe the smug grin off of his face, exemplifying a major drawback of developing informal relationships in the military. Had she maintained a professional attitude, this would not have occurred and the driver would have already been taken into intensive care as a result of Tanya's aggressive self-defence. Assaulting a minor was a serious infraction and assaulting Tanya was a death wish.

Wishes had a knack for coming true at the least opportune moment.

"He didn't tell you? You are to be blindfolded until we arrive at our destination."

"Is that even legal? I'm not a criminal."

"The Military Police have the authority to make this request. Schugel insisted on doing it himself, but that would have been problematic."

Schugel's idiosyncrasy has outdone itself even in his absence. The driver's explanation also hinted at Schugel's relentlessness in testing the legal limits of his power. Tanya was positive that this was a case of Schugel trying to exert authority rather than him being ignorant of legal matters. It was his masterful exploitation of legal grey areas that put Tanya in her current predicament.

Tanya regretted not disposing of the MP earlier. He wouldn't have become Schugel's enabler if he were dead.

Orders were orders, though, and it was better to pick up on this one before Schugel got to join them. Tanya temporarily removed her headgear to put the blindfold on, lest the MP would have to come over to help. Having her sight taken away and the unreliable Type 95 operation orb limiting her extrasensory perception left Tanya on edge about anyone encroaching on her personal space.

"This is an outrage. I've read my itinerary, so there can't be a state secret worth keeping from me. Schugel wouldn't have included it in writing if that were the case."

Her statement was mostly a lie: albeit she had gotten acquainted with a part of her itinerary, Schugel hadn't included anything of the sort. A reference to being blindfolded would have been caught by her internal danger filter.

Likewise, she was hoping the MP would take her words at face value rather than as an attempt to probe for information. As the driver, he should have been briefed about the route in advance because the assignment had to be cleared with the higher-ups. It was unlikely that they'd have given Schugel carte blanche to use MP escorts as he saw fit.

"I'm guessing the element of surprise plays a role. Besides, aren't the items on your itinerary limited to generic descriptions like 'equipment specification test'?"

Tanya's expression soured at his response. He wasn't going to divulge the information that interested her.

"What is Schugel up to?" Tanya asked, discontent, and started tinkering with her operation orb.

Sensory deprivation had its uses in scenarios other than torture and, given Schugel's pedantic subtlety during tests, the blindfold could serve as a preamble to something worse, like forcing her to rely on the operation orb for basic environmental awareness.

At least Schugel didn't have her tied up and thrown in the boot like a hostage. Ironically, it would have been a more accurate representation of her status as testing personnel, a hostage taken by a madman impossible to negotiate with.

The MP shifted in his seat, having noticed her tinkering. "For all of our sakes, Second Lieutenant, keep your operation orb deactivated. I've been told you can use it to scan your surroundings, which is a mighty convenient bypass."

 _Too convenient,_ Tanya agreed. The MP wasn't chiding her for it, only hinting at the risk of falling into a potential trap by activating the operation orb. There were no low-hanging fruit in Schugel's world.

The sound of the door opening sagged the mood inside the vehicle. Schugel has arrived.

"I see the Second Lieutenant is ready. Proceed."

"Where are we going?" Tanya asked, her head poking between the front seats. The hastily fastened blindfold covered her bangs and obscured half of her face.

Schugel was unmoved by the image. "It is to avoid questions like this one that I demanded sedatives instead of this ludicrous blindfold. I'd appreciate it if you took a nap, Second Lieutenant."

"The caffeine kicked in, so I'm not tired anymore."

"That means you can activate your operation orb and sedate yourself."

Tanya found the suggestion peculiar. On the one hand, he permitted her to take an extrasensory peek at the outside world. However, she would need to successfully cast a sleep spell on herself soon afterwards. Since the car ride has barely begun, Schugel was definitely aiming for secrecy.

She kicked back in her seat, pondering a way out of the predicament. Schugel remained eerily silent for what felt like half an hour, neither scolding her for any perceived failures nor exalting his handiwork. The lingering air of seriousness gave her the creeps about what awaited her when it was time to remove the blindfold.

The car drove into a valley, causing a distinctive sensation in Tanya's belly. They must have reached the town of Elin.

As if to confirm her thoughts, the driver said, "The local hospital says you blew up a mountain today. Good job."

He had seen the explosion himself, so using the hospital as a witness was meaningless in itself. The point was to let Tanya know that people were injured in the explosion.

Schugel came to intercept before Tanya could say anything, "The mountain had been cordoned off. Hospital staff can forward anyone injured in the explosion to law enforcement." The defensive tone was likely to address the hidden accusation of causing the civilian population more pain. Tanya marked Schugel's reaction down for future use.

"Apparently, it was one of your colleagues. The ambulance leaving the Elinium Factory found an upturned convertible on the side of the road."

"A convertible in these troubled times? They should fine him for reckless driving."

 _Kukuku_ , Tanya laughed to herself when she connected the dots in their conversation.

The Sales Director of the Elinium Factory was the one who got caught in the blast. Tanya had seen him drive off in a convertible before the fateful test and got what was coming to him for taunting Tanya. The fact Schugel was in tacit agreement with her on the matter spoke volumes.

Unfortunately, this conclusion presented a problem, as the Sales Department would be wary of pushing an invention that harmed their department head, regardless of the event's circumstances. Tanya cursed under her breath for deflating her own mood. Why was it so difficult to properly punish a jerk for being a jerk?

Tanya sensed commotion outside. The car slowed down.

"Halt! This area is off limits."

"That's okay, officer. We have a permit," said the driver. Judging by said officer's reaction, Tanya imagined that all the driver had to do was point at Schugel sitting next to him

"Engineering Director von Schugel! We were not expecting you this early."

"Your low expectations are my problem, it appears."

The rest of the ride was considerably slower and bumpier. Tanya surmised that the car remained in the vicinity of Elin when it finally stopped. She tried to recollect a location that would be both off limits to civilians and of interest to Schugel. Other than an unknown unknown, her brain was down to one alternative, the place that the MPs had warned her about, where Schugel sent Mages to die.

Oh, how Tanya wished she would have been able to leave the MPs' words about hauntings and hallucination that supposedly happened there as hearsay. Verifying urban legends had zero appeal to her.

Somebody opened her car door. Tanya heard Schugel's voice: "Take my hand, Second Lieutenant. I'll tell you when you can remove the blindfold." With her sense of hearing highlighted by the loss of sight, she noticed that his voice was coming out lower than normal, as if he altered his stature to make it easier to hold her hand.

He had a strong grip. Not painful, but enough to guide her by applying pressure when her feet went off the track. In Tanya's defence, blindly following someone on rocky terrain was no easy task.

The mood changed after a hundred steps or so. The air became more humid and a mechanical cacophony assaulted her ears. Combined with the uneven footing, Tanya was now confident of her whereabouts.

The Elin Mine.

A metal gate crashed open in front of her, prompting the guide to pull her forward onto a hard surface that seemed suspended in the air. The sound of locks engaging and buttons clicking, followed by the chime of a warning buzzer dispersed the remaining doubts: it was a lift supposed to bring her to the heart of the mine.

There was no turning back when the descent began. Not that there had been a feasible way to abort the assignment, but now even the unfeasible ones were out of the picture. Tanya would have to face the urban legends surrounding the mine.

"Feel free to inform me if you experience any discomfort. The purpose of this venture is to calibrate your body's response function to the Elinium Type 95 Operation Orb."

Two words caught her attention, the first being "venture." While Schugel's equipment tests were risky by default, this time he personally acknowledged the danger of Tanya's undertaking, albeit in the subtlest manner possible. One word was all it took to show that the conditions given to her were a world apart from the standard fare.

Since this wasn't an equipment test, Tanya seized the opportunity to clarify the second keyword. "Calibrate? Doesn't that imply changing it?"

A wave of goose bumps flowed down her back as she considered the implications. There was no way she had misheard him; it was going to be a repeat of her first test, only far less pleasant because the calibration implied a permanent change to the way her body functioned. Since it involved going deep underground with Schugel likely acting as the sole overseer, the so-called venture had all the trappings of a bona fide disaster.

"Indeed. You are wise beyond your years, Second Lieutenant. May this trait serve you well, should it withstand the procedure."

Praise!

Schugel praised her! He praised her in advance. This was wrong. Where were the criticism, verbal abuse or humiliation? Given Schugel's disposition, his behaviour was entirely unnatural, which made her feel weak in the knees.

The forceful grip on her hand reminded her that the encouragement came at a price and the customer was a tough negotiator. Fearing her will power receding, Tanya's mind sought solace in a procedural rubber stamp. If all else failed, she still had that. Didn't she?

"What is my safeword?"

The lift halted its descent and her hand was quietly pulled forward. A pang of disappointment in her chest, Tanya found herself locked dozens of levels below the surface ahead of a merciless trial.

Her executioner-cum-supervisor stopped in the middle of a cavernous space, his voice echoing: "Calibration is safe, Second Lieutenant. You are in good hands."

"Yours?"

The hand released her.

"No. You may take off the blindfold."


	36. Holed Up

Tanya removed the blindfold.

It didn't make a difference. The world around her was a pitch black void, a pit of undying misery that she was happy to share with Schugel. He deserved to see reality in its true colours, finally absent the protection of his veil of madness, whichever hue it assumed.

Like Schugel had said, her brooding was meaningless because life as Existence X had designed it placed her at the butt of the joke; Tanya put up her hand defensively in front of her eyes.

The switch came right on time. A bright electric lamp lit up dead ahead. The luminosity would have made quick work of her eyes after the prolonged lapse of being kept in the dark.

Her vision eventually adjusted to the change and began discerning shapes in what started as a soupy blur. She hadn't expected anything to surprise her this time.

Schugel has outdone himself yet again, however. This time by being absent from the scene. Tanya needed a moment to catch up with her surroundings.

"What is the meaning of this?" she asked indignantly. It was an act because she reached the answer as soon as she saw the MP in front of her toting a speaker on his chest, but she had to get the conversation going, if only to stall for time.

"Somebody has to carry your luggage, Second Lieutenant," the MP replied.

It was unusual for Schugel, whom Tanya believed to be on the other end of the speaker that the MP carried, to remain silent and let his stooge do the talking. In a way, she got the answer, even though the MP's humour was lost on her.

Tanya figured that Schugel's decision to accompany her via speaker system alone had to do with the tedium of the MP's role. Nonetheless, she had to be careful about how much she would let them know about her true state of mind. The MP focused on a sheet of paper in his hand when he wasn't tracking her movements with his lamp. If the sheet had Schugel's talking points for this assignment, the jokey line could be a hint about the challenges ahead and she shouldn't dismiss it.

Wringing her hands and looking over her shoulder to fortify the impression of nervousness, she continued probing the MP for information, "What's going on? Where am I?"

"Settle down, Second Lieutenant. We're in the old coal mine near Elin. This level has been abandoned, so it's just the two of us."

She pointed at the speaker on the MP's chest. "And Schugel?"

"Way to ruin the mood. Yes, and Schugel. He'll be monitoring your progress from a blast-proof station at the entrance." He peeked at the notes and bit his lip, having likely said too much.

A frown broke through Tanya's feigned vulnerable exterior, confirming the MP's fears. He put out his hand apologetically and intervened before Tanya could open her mouth to speak, "Trust me, Second Lieutenant, I like this as little as you do and chances are that I'll be the last to know if something goes wrong."

"Wrong, you say?"

The sheet of paper was shaking in his hand the entire time, so Tanya didn't manage to eavesdrop, and the moment he noticed her interest in the contents he brought it close to his face. His eyes darted from edge to edge in search of the line that would save him from her pending wrath. He half-smiled upon finding it.

"I've been instructed to let you activate the operation orb to proceed with the calibration. When the procedure is over, I'll guide you outside."

Tanya removed her cap and gripped it in her hands, a pleading look as her weapon. "Promise?"

"If you let me, yeah."

It didn't work. The MP was either blind to her plight or he ignored her per Schugel's instructions. If sound was the only way Schugel could monitor them, there was no harm in letting her see the sheet in full. Tanya was a soldier and would therefore avoid getting caught by masterfully controlling her emotional response, regardless of the idiocy of Schugel's instructions. She was confident in her ability to contain her indignation. Really.

Seeing that the MP wouldn't cooperate, she slowly paced around the cavern to examine her surroundings. The equipment supposed to return her to the surface was powered down and the MP held the only light source, possibly running on second-rate batteries. If she were in Schugel's shoes, she'd have provided no more than a few minutes of charge to let the point sink: she was trapped underground until she resorted to magic.

Tanya would have considered snubbing Schugel by taking flight without the aid of the operation orb, had it not been for the disorienting presence on this level. Calling it a presence was inaccurate, but she found something off about the mine and the sensation grew with every passing moment. It was too risky to cast a spell outright; the result could be unpredictable.

Hauntings, curses, hallucinations and blisters the size of one's fist–Tanya recalled the rumours circulating about the Elin Mine and hated the nagging suspicion in the back of her mind that at least a part of them was bound to come true on her watch.

She kicked a rock as she did her rounds, deep in thought. She could deal with ghosts. In a world of magic governed by a resentful self-proclaimed deity, she would have expected to see spirits and other supposed evidence of intelligent design on a frequent basis. Likewise, she had no problem with curses, which were essentially spells with elaborate triggers as far as modern science was concerned.

The other two, especially blisters, made her shiver.

Having reached a cave wall that the rock bounced off of, Tanya touched the obstacle before her and closed her eyes. There really wasn't anyone else around besides her and the MP. The earth was silent.

But it was not peaceful.

A Mage's senses were connected to the world in ways science was yet to explain. The power to shatter the bonds of reality came with an innate understanding of its founding principles. However, this was not a one-sided relationship; the world had a tremendous effect on those most attuned to its changes. As such, Tanya went to great lengths to analyse the initial conditions of her assignment in the Elin Mine. If anything sinister lurked in the shadows, the tiniest spark of magic would serve as a beacon that would expose the hapless Mage.

For all intents and purposes, Tanya was alone. The MP didn't qualify as a meat shield and Schugel made his opinion known by staying as far from her as possible whilst retaining a formal engagement to this _venture_. Schugel had little confidence in her success despite asserting that the _calibration_ was safe.

Schugel had a funny definition of safety. Funny as in, "This fish smells funny." He wouldn't bat an eyelash about a lost limb if the rest of the body was fit to continue testing and Tanya had a feeling his tolerance for collateral damage was rising every time. As long as he could extract more use out of Tanya regardless of the outcome, his aspirations were safe. Ergo, his understanding of safety was limited to the potential effect an action would have on his plans. Caring for his squishy guinea pigs was no more than a chore.

A half-smile broke past Tanya's exterior as she became aware of having called herself Schugel's guinea pig. Schugel's fate was connected with hers as long as he had trouble finding a replacement. While he wouldn't be so bold as to forfeit her life because of this, he was unlikely to let go of her either.

Which meant that he expected her to survive this one. The jab at her wisdom and the reference to luggage, knowing Schugel, implied how close to the edge the baseline scenario stood.

Schugel had taken extra precautions to shield himself in the event something unexpected happened. The assignment wasn't classed as a test and Tanya hadn't been given any explicit orders upon reaching the mine's entrance besides holding on and removing her blindfold.

The judiciary would be compelled to take Schugel's side if Tanya were to speak up. Looking back at her _agreement_ with Schugel, she had no right to complain about this assignment, further reducing his risks. In fact, the MP was now the biggest source of danger to Schugel's plans, but the danger would only materialise if he didn't splatter on the rocks as a result of Tanya's flashiest explosion yet.

 _Very shrewd_.

Tanya lifted her hand and disposed of her glove. The difference in the earth's reaction to her touch was immediate. Sparks of crimson jumped to caress her fingertips, the ores still sealed in the mine reflecting the minuscule lights, until she pulled the hand away and everything ground to a halt.

The radiance was truly magical. Tanya scoffed at the display as she turned to face the MP, who has been following her. "There's a seam of elinium on this floor, isn't there?"

"I've no clue, Second Lieutenant."

 _No duh._ She wanted to hear what Schugel had to say, not his stooge.

Schugel, however, chose to stay quiet whilst the MP seemed honest in his ignorance, leaving Tanya empty-handed and pushing her closer to accepting the next dose of punishment. Such was their intention as far as Tanya was concerned.

Her life may have been forsaken the moment she came to this world, but she would go down fighting and the same applied to her current assignment. With a fiendish glint in her eye and a smile to match, she turned away and reached out for the wall again.

A web of crimson, shimmering through the rocks, told her that she was right on point. She grasped a protruding piece of ore and tugged on it until it broke away.

 _So this is raw unrefined elinium ore…_

Even disconnected from the rest of the seam, it sparkled in her hand, reacting wildly to minute changes while radiating warmth from within. This was a precursor of power mankind had not yet mastered. It thrashed in her hand, vying to disturb the natural flow of mana, much like the Type 95 whenever it was activated. Recollecting the things it put her through, she thought about crushing the chunk out of spite, but she already had a better idea.

Tanya glanced at the MP, about to become a guinea pig of her own.

"Catch!" She threw the piece of elinium at him.

He almost dropped his lamp in surprise, but managed to grab it.

"How do you find it?" she asked. He had seen the sparks, so she didn't need to elaborate; elinium behaved like no other substance she had seen in this world.

"It's warm. Strange."

Tanya nodded sagely. "Just as I suspected. Elinium is radioactive."

"Radio…active?"

"Radioactivity affects you on a fundamental level. Depending on the source, it can go right through you, damage tissue or cause horrific mutations." As she approached the MP, Tanya extended her hand to barely touch the ore, prompting it to light up crimson again. "In other words, don't expect to have kids if you keep holding that."

The MP threw it away, visibly dishevelled both by Tanya's lecture and the ore's reaction to her. She grinned at him in response. If elinium was what it felt like, holding one's distance was the smartest decision, like what Schugel did. Speaking of which, there was one more thing Tanya needed to verify.

"Can Schugel hear us?"

"Loud and clear, _Degurechaff_ ," Schugel's annoyed tone came through the speaker. Tanya appeared to have found a way to goad him more than with the Engineering Director moniker, a darling revelation that lifted her spirits.

She may have said too much about radiation to avoid suspicion in the future, but it was a necessary evil to show those two that she wouldn't blindly fall in line unless she had to. Schugel must have realised by now that he would have to put his neck on the line to get her to cooperate. The only problem was that the moment he did that, he would have to take responsibility for everything that were to happen in the mine.

"What are my orders, sir?" she provoked him.

No answer, as expected.

Tanya clicked her tongue as she stared down the MP. "Since _Schugel_ isn't rushing me, I take it you're formally in charge of whatever this is."

"I'd rather not say."

A non-answer. Schugel had advised him well.

An outright rejection would have streamlined Tanya's thoughts about the case, but the MP was probably in too deep himself to avoid ambiguity at this point. The improvised mic check that confirmed Schugel was, indeed, monitoring the situation added another reason for the MP to exercise caution.

Tanya's running assumption was that Schugel had tricked the MP to act as the administrator for the procedure's duration. A tacit agreement was also plausible, yet it could have implicated the local Military Police garrison in case of failure. Higher-ups wouldn't have risked it and going AWOL individually sounded like a terrible career choice for someone working in the rear. Hence, allowing Schugel to trick him put everyone else in the clear. Some awkwardness in keeping up the charade aside, this scenario put the initiative in Tanya's hands at no cost to the schemer remaining on the surface or his stooge-slash-accomplice stuck in the mine with her.

Provided she didn't explode and cause the whole mine to collapse, which was not in Schugel's cards, it was probably safe for the MP to accompany her. Then again, if that were the case, Schugel's precautions seemed odd. He put too much distance between himself and Tanya for her to take avoidance of legal ramifications as the sole reason behind it. However, this line of thought raised questions about the MP's continuous involvement in Schugel's shady business. Barring world-class ignorance, why would anyone take him up on accompanying Tanya to a haunted mine?

Lying was not Schugel's style, so there had to be something that Tanya had missed, a condition which made the arrangement acceptable to the MP despite the obvious dangers posed by the Type 95.

It pained her to fail to reach the answer.

 _What do they know that I don't?_

Even more so, it pained her that she was running out of time. Should she succeed, taking too long without a valid reason would give Schugel the excuse to berate her character in writing.

Tanya snapped out of her stupor and lifted her operation orb. She glanced at the letter _Beta_ engraved on its back. Schugel had taken the operation orb away from her at the factory, so there was no guarantee she held the same unit as before.

"But you won't let me go back up until I do this thing, eh?" she asked the MP.

"Power's out, Second Lieutenant. I'm instructed to tell you that activating the operation orb should help."

 _Yes, activation should help_ , she mumbled sarcastically in her mind. Tanya felt like a sheep being corralled into a pen. She would find out what awaited her, be it a sheering or slaughter, when it was too late to change the fate intended for her. Schugel must have realised that creating a situation in which activating the operation orb was the solution to all problems wouldn't sit well with Tanya. She wanted assurances that there weren't additional strings attached.

"Is that all?"

"As far as I know, yes."

Tanya furrowed her brows. His reply meant that returning to the surface was not necessarily that simple and Schugel could step in at any point with another trick up his sleeve. As Schugel's subordinate, Tanya would have to deal with that, but Schugel wasn't the one standing in front of her right now.

She went over the bits of conversation she had caught on the way to the Elinium Factory and the anecdotes about the mine once again in hopes of pinpointing something to catch the MP off guard. Tanya had heard legends about curses and hallucinations from his dead colleague. What had this MP said in response back then?

" _They couldn't find the body of the previous Mage who went in. The Engineering Director looked happy when he got back without a scratch, though."_

Her eyes went wide at the meaning behind those words, the rest of her face suppressing the "Gotcha!" sentiment. She had to be careful because there was a chance the MP had merely repeated what others had told him, but personal involvement in a previous assignment of this sort would have explained his willingness to accompany her.

"It's not the first time you're down here, is it?" she asked, seemingly out of the blue.

He replied without hesitation, "That's right."

"What did you do last time?"

"I came to retrieve the body."

Tanya twitched. It had been going so well and he managed to throw her off without trying. By now she was positive that he knew what was going to happen to her and acted out of vindictive selfishness by refusing to share this information. It was inexcusable!

"Why?!" she exclaimed and immediately shut her mouth. The echoes blared her question from every direction, growing more distorted with each repeat.

"Orders are orders, Second Lieutenant."

With that, Tanya realised that she had blown her chance to pull anything useful out of him. Questions about Tanya's predecessor wracked her brain.

 _Why couldn't_ they _find the body? Was the MP a part of_ they _? Or was he sent down by Schugel after_ they _failed?_

The MP's expression didn't reveal whether he had found the Mage's body in the end. It wouldn't have surprised her if he did and _forgot_ to report it before turning it over to Schugel, leaving Schugel to do as he pleased to satisfy his sick curiosity without any oversight. Tanya had to make certain that she wouldn't be subjected to such defilement.

"Of course. What are my orders?"

"Shall I go over the briefing again?"

Tanya has had enough of the farce. She asked for orders and didn't receive any. "No. I'd like to receive a direct order from someone with the authority to issue one."

The MP said nothing, as did Schugel. Tanya did not receive any orders.

She was…free?

Trapped?

Like a cocked gun, all she needed to be of use was a finger on her trigger. Without the promise of one, she suddenly found herself lost, directionless, inert.

In a cursed mine of all places.

A gun was supposed to fire. A soldier was to carry out orders. Tanya was to fire without being given the order to do so. A gun that fired of its own accord was defective. Tanya would never in her right mind use such a gun.

The operation orb dangling from the collar of her shirt came into her view. The sight caused a bitter smile to crack to the surface. She had been babbling nonsense to herself.

"I see. I see how it is." Tanya chortled. Her high pitch reverberated in the caves until it lost its energy and was mangled into a creepy otherworldly noise. "This is just perfect!"

"Perfect! Perfect!" echoed the mine. The response prompted more laughter from Tanya.

She twirled around her axis and pranced to the chaotic tune given life by her voice. "I can feel it in the air, the tingling intensity that grows with every breath I take. It won't be long until I'm done for, huh?" She flashed a grin at the MP, who looked away.

The echoes overlapped and intertwined, coming back at her distorted as one, "Perfect…feel it in the air…done for…"

Schugel had pulled a great joke, so why was Tanya the only one laughing? Wasn't laughter supposed to be contagious?

Even the MP's expression was funny. He had gone pale, frozen stiff, so his light barely followed Tanya on her hops and leaps in the empty cave. Has it finally dawned on him that Schugel was dealing with matters beyond his own understanding?

"It's everywhere! The walls, the ceiling and now my lungs. I thought the testing hangar was toxic. This…this is obscene!" Tanya fell to her knees, barely holding herself up with her hands. Her breathing was uneven and her focus was wavering, but it didn't dampen her spirits. Before long, she saw tiny electric arcs gather around the gloveless hand. "Ah, what a magical place! The possibilities here are awesome."

"What are you saying, Second Lieutenant?"

 _Awesome, I said_. _In a biblical sense…_ She was quite certain she didn't say that out loud. It would have been a problem if she did.

Seeing that the dense MP wouldn't drop the topic, she punched the ground angrily. She punched it so hard she left a red stain on the surface. Tanya, however, didn't feel a thing. In the meantime, sparks were beginning to coil around her fingers.

She sat up, her bleeding hand extended towards the MP to get him to lift her.

He gawked at it. Between the electricity of unknown origin and her erratic behaviour, it was natural for one to hesitate. In the end, he helped her up.

The crimson sparks remained on Tanya's skin, though. They didn't leave her from the jolt of being pulled up or being touched by another. Tanya figured that her original hypothesis about elinium was flawed. Elinium treated different people differently. To radiation, all people were just sacks of meat.

"This whole place is contaminated in ways you can't even imagine and once it gets inside you, it's impossible to get rid of." She blew at the sparks, made a fist and shook her hand–none of the actions freed her from the manifestation.

"But…you're a Mage! You can control this thing, right?"

"That's the idea, isn't it?" She nodded to herself. The MP's question told her what she had been missing. "I understand now."

That man had complete faith in her ability to succeed. Schugel probably didn't have to resort to fancy tricks to secure his participation. He was a believer. The fool wouldn't have lasted a day on the front with that attitude.

"I have a question of my own, then. What happened to that Mage?"

He glanced down at the speaker on his uniform before conceding to Tanya. "It's documented as MIA."

"Mmm…convenient." Tanya disposed of her other glove and connected her fingers. The sparks spread to the other hand without losing intensity on either. "Is the same going to happen to me?" she asked nonchalantly, preoccupied with the light show on her palms.

"I don't know, Second Lieutenant."

"It's Schugel I'm asking, not you."

Schugel didn't breathe a word. In his stead, the MP read something off of his sheet and said, "I've been instructed to inform that you will be entitled to additional guidance once your operation orb activates."

"So that's the ticket to make you talk…" She walked up to the MP while he was reading, startling him when he found her in his personal space, looking up with the glee of a predator about to score a kill. "What else do you have in those notes?" Her eyes flashed as she spoke.

The MP stepped back and reached for his sidearm in a threatening display, making Tanya sigh in frustration.

"I kid. Besides, it's not like that peashooter is going to help when I get serious…"

The MP emoted in agreement before returning to the broken record treatment, "You'd need to activate the operation orb for that."

"Precisely!"

Her exclamation boomed in the cave. It cowed the MP to actually grab his gun, aiming it slightly below Tanya's feet. He was still controlling himself, which Tanya found amusing. There was a great rift between them, which was about to grow because Tanya could afford to drop any remaining self-restraint.

" _Schuuugel_ , are you still listening?"

No response.

"Fuck. You."

Tanya grabbed her operation orb and watched in awe as all the sparks were funnelled into the core, springing it to life.


	37. Catalyst

"Nuu! Don't you dare!" Tanya shook the Type 95 operation orb violently to keep it from fully activating. She hadn't issued an activation order, nor did she channel any mana to fuel the process. It was unheard of for such a power-hungry operation orb to self-activate.

 _Unless_ … She glanced over her shoulder warily. The raw elinium deposits sealed in the mine were reacting to everything she did. The sheer volume of the ore and its apparent hypersensitivity to magic rendered normal rules of engagement obsolete. She wouldn't be able to reach the surface without magic, yet resorting to magic would awaken a calamity the likes of which Tanya was not prepared to face. Schugel had purposefully thrown her into this twilight zone.

The little that she had seen was enough for her to conclude that the scary stories circulating about the mine were true. Given the insanity-inducing effect the tiny amount of elinium in the Type 95 operation orb exerted on its user, the ample deposits remaining in the abandoned coal mine were a recipe for a bona fide disaster. Hallucinations and blisters would be the least of her worries if all of the elinium converged as one uncontrollable operation orb of epic proportions.

It was a frightening thought. She had to avoid the scenario at all costs. Even death was preferable to the mindless rampage that elinium could elicit. Tanya swore to herself that she would not allow a repeat of what happened during the test of Item 95X. To be rid of one's agency, to lose the ability to reason–that was Tanya's definition of hell on earth. Upon reaching such a state, one was at the mercy of circumstance, ignorant to the tragedy taking place to one's self.

She did not quite understand what caused her operation orb to go haywire, but the jewel at its centre dimmed down as quickly as it had fired up. It was a minute relief that added to her anxiety about being trapped in the mine.

"Are you done?" the MP asked. His gun was holstered, so he must have gotten over Tanya's outburst. The MP's question might as well have been directed to a child rather than a soldier, but his actions exposed the gravity of the situation: if Tanya crossed the line, he would shoot her.

Admitting wrongdoing and promising to be on her best behaviour was probably the best course of action, but the wrongdoing was not of her design. It was Schugel's fault! He arranged for this to happen with the acute awareness of what the consequences would be. Schugel was prepared to sacrifice Tanya's sanity for his own benefit. She didn't want to hate Schugel. He forced her to feel this way. Her hatred was just a part of his plan, the realisation of which only made her despise him more.

"Never! Not until I dance on _Schugel's_ grave."

The mine echoed her indignation. Unlike the ambience, however, Tanya's agitation wouldn't go away. She glared daggers at the operation orb, a memento that encapsulated Schugel's presence in the mine.

"Grr, you weren't supposed to activate yet…"

It would have felt amazing to just smash it into pieces. Then, Schugel would have had to be the one to figure out the way forward. He created the problem and therefore it was fair that he got to find the solution. Tanya did not deserve this! Oh, how she'd love to look at his frigid mustachio face if their roles were reversed. "How are you?" she would ask him mockingly. "Focus! Make it work! Try harder!" She'd let him taste every bit of his own medicine throughout each stage of the elaborate torture regime disguised as a series of equipment tests. Unlike that miserable sadist, she'd at least crack a smile at the pain she caused.

"Second Lieutenant?" the MP asked. Tanya pretended not to hear him.

But no. Miracles were out of place in this world. As long as Schugel controlled Tanya's fate, it was more prudent to cast all hope aside and entrust herself to the operation orb. There was no glory in defeat, nor did it ease her anguish. The operation orb would find a way to backstab Tanya regardless of her posture towards Schugel.

Preparing for this eventuality had no practical purpose. Tanya was merely trying to preserve the illusion of her own humanity.

"Second Lieutenant!"

"Stupid piece of junk."

"Um, Tanya?"

"What is it with you?" she barked. The MP had withdrawn a considerable distance from her and was now pointing at the ceiling. Tanya's question continued reverberating in the cavernous space until she doubled down when she saw the source of his concern. "What?!"

A beeping noise came from the MP's speaker, followed by a click and Schugel's voice, "A word of advice, Second Lieutenant: it's what you put out that counts, not what you keep bottled inside."

The mine shook, but this event barely registered on Tanya's lopsided anxiety scale. There was a storm of red sparks right above her, more emerging from the ground beneath her feet. The operation orb in her hands lit up again.

"Wha-what is this?" Her mouth agape, she stared at the spreading agitation of the elinium ore. The mine's curse has caught up to her and there was no running from its all-enveloping grasp.

The MP dropped his lamp, taken aback by the sight. "That's the only mana saturation warning we're going to get this deep. I hope you know what you're doing…"

"Hope is wasted on the hopeless." Tanya didn't expect to find this much elinium in the mine. It was a breath-taking if not debilitating sight. Before long, most of the visible surface was covered in animated sparks of red, jumping in-between rocks and growing ever more dense in her presence.

Tanya felt cornered by the display and closed her eyes in anticipation of a terrible future. She didn't know what the sparks were or why elinium behaved this way around her, but she was positive that if she failed to subjugate the operation orb to her will now, it would be too late.

Working through the mental exercises she has adapted to the Elinium Type 95B Operation Orb, the four-core variant with safety features enabled, she uncorked her mana supply to establish the connection proper. Tanya had a number of spells in mind to help her calm down and gather information to secure her victory.

Things went awry from the very start.

"That's…no, this orb is… " She fed the precise amount of mana to activate each of the four cores, yet received only one response. The other three cores were missing. It was a different operation orb.

Anger boiled inside of her as she realised that Schugel had switched the operation orb's metal casing to make it look like a Type 95B. "Schugel, you bastard, you tricked me!" The operation orb heated up, its core having received four times the base amount of mana.

Tanya wanted to scream bloody murder about having learnt this in the middle of her most dangerous encounter, as Schugel had purposefully and maliciously deceived her. The mono-core Elinium Type 95 variant normally bore the letter A for Alpha and Tanya conditioned herself to make the distinction between every variant based on the letter engraved on the casing. The one thing stopping her from putting an end to the humiliation in a destructive fashion was that Schugel had given her a chance to get acquainted with this particular unit. Had she activated it during the ride to the mine to cast the sleeping spell like Schugel had suggested, she would not have made this blunder now.

"Curses-curses-curses…" She scuttled to rein in the operation orb before it could explode from overheating.

A mono-core operation orb meant sequential spellcasting, a serious drawback when dealing with a backlog of magic requests lined up in her mind. Tanya started off with levitation to avoid touching the elinium in the floor, should proximity be the cause of its agitation, succeeded up by a scan and sonar spells to discern the environmental hazards, of which there were likely many.

The magnitude of her blunder dawned on Tanya the moment a gust of wind lifted her off the ground. The same force that raised her blew countless elinium particles into the air thus increasing the number of sparks exponentially. The agitated particles disturbed the miniature crimson storms on the floor and ceiling, filling the gap and connecting them together, placing Tanya in the middle of their cell.

To make matters worse, the sonar spell spread trace amounts of Tanya's mana throughout the cave and left a straight route back to her for everything it picked up. Rather than simply pull all the sparks over to herself, however, Tanya accidentally made more spawn in their place wherever the sonar had reached. It was the beginning of a chain reaction.

Crimson arcs jumped towards her from every corner of the cave. Initially small and silent, they grew in size to scale greater distances, causing the distinctive noise of an electric discharge. The booms overlapped and echoed as their intensity grew, putting Tanya at the epicentre of every escalation.

At that point it had gotten so bad she saw red despite holding her eyes forcefully shut. Using magic to stave off an impending panic attack was bound to provide limited relief and only compound the problem. She had to use her head to reach the answer, but her thoughts were in a flurry, too chaotic to make sense of the situation.

The truth was that her fears have manifested and she was effectively sealed inside a phenomenon akin to the core of an enormous operation orb. There was no telling what would happen if she allowed it to go out of control; blowing up a mountain paled in comparison to the destructive potential of this much elinium.

Feeding it mana in order to guide the reaction to a purpose was out of the question. The last thing it needed was more fuel.

Hence, she had to starve it, to seal herself and her magic away. She managed to fight off the Type 95 operation orbs' thirst for mana on numerous occasions and the process should have been just as straightforward with raw ore. The concentrated purity of the elinium in her operation orb beat the ample quantity of unrefined ore responsible for the thick web of red surrounding her.

Once the battle plan was drawn, Tanya proceeded with its execution. She would be unable to carry it out while under a life-threatening amount of stress, which she could neither ease with precious time nor magic, so she had to expunge it along with everything else that would bother her en route to complete self-isolation.

Starting with the pain. What used to be a gentle tickling sensation of the hand metastasised and mutated into needling, peeling agony. Her bodily functions went haywire, either stopping or going in reverse in a primitive attempt to purge the poison by any means necessary. Her revulsion was instinctive and it followed the highest directive that a living being possessed, self-preservation. Every fibre in her body told her to flee while she still had the capacity to.

Unlike the mind, however, the body was blissfully ignorant of the true nature of her predicament. There was no escaping this invisible foe that peered through flesh and reduced those in its way to twitching bags of pus before snuffing them out. Tanya's knowledge of radiation likened the calamity that befell her to an excruciatingly condensed version of the horror stories from one of the darkest moments in her country's history. Elinium was inimical to life.

Schugel should have died from radiation sickness prior to reaching anything close to a breakthrough. His organs should have melted under his skin, so he would excrete them from every orifice. Perhaps, that would have persuaded him not to mess with radiation and whatever else made elinium so dangerous.

His silence about the matter was suspicious. Schugel had deemed information pertaining to the properties of elinium a state secret too dear to reveal to Tanya. The fact that he survived long enough to produce several variants of the Type 95 contrasted with the fates of numerous scientists from Tanya's previous life. Those scientists had paid the ultimate price by succumbing to the many ailments that careless handling of radioactive materials entailed.

Although Tanya resented Schugel for not sharing her pain, she recognised his survival as proof of the existence of a way out. Schugel hadn't neutralised the danger of elinium, so his method could be deemed a stalemate rather than a victory, yet a benign stalemate was preferable to the anguish she was experiencing.

"Whatever you do, Second Lieutenant, Tanya, try to keep calm and focus on what you're doing!" the MP called.

By mentioning focus, the MP only managed to rile her up more and allowed additional pain to ride this wave of anger.

"Shut it!" Tanya's shout, enhanced by magic, caused a local disturbance that made the MP's lamp blink. "It's hard enough to focus without you yapping. A-a-ahhh!"

She cried out and found herself unable to stop, releasing one continuous scream for as long as she had air in her lungs, having succumbed to the pain build up. In the depths of her troubled mind, she saw the image of a guinea pig exploding in a microwave to satisfy someone's sadistic curiosity.

"Talk to me, Second Lieutenant. I've seen this before. I can help!"

"Lies!"

"Even if it is so, it'll help you gather your thoughts."

Pep talk while she was on the verge of experiencing a nuclear meltdown inside her own body. What a repugnant joke. The MP should have died together with his colleague on the way to the Elinium Factory. This was no way to treat someone who had saved his life.

Tanya intended to shake a fist at him, but her extremities appeared to defy her will; her palm went limp instead of balling up into a fist. Shocked by what this failure implied about her health, Tanya found herself grasping at straws to avoid breaking into tears. In her rapidly diminishing mental state, she would take any offer to make the pain go away regardless of the offer's merits.

"It hurts. I gotta…seal the pain away. Preparing for mental s-segmentation."

"That won't work." The MP's voice sounded different than before; he was approaching her.

Her eyes went wide at what she heard. The harsh red light caused searing pain in excess of what she was already experiencing. Tanya had to compromise to buy her sanity time. If her faculties failed her now, she would be unable to escape the downward spiral. She risked blowing up the operation orb by running a powerful restorative spell through the core. Most of the spell's components were useless under the current conditions, yet it would keep the pain at bay for a moment at the cost of the full amount crashing down at once when the spell expired.

"Bullshit! It always does."

"Why do you think so?" He was standing close.

"Because it worked in every damn test! Are you retarded?"

"Does this look like a test to you, Second Lieutenant?"

She couldn't tell whether he was reading this off of Schugel's notes. While the chaos around her severely impeded her ability to see past the anomalous red storm, the confidence in his responses told her as much. Schugel had deemed the suffering necessary for Tanya to uncover some secret truth on her own. She had precious seconds left until the pain would cloud her mind again.

"Sure hurts like one!"

"Fine. What are you testing, then?" Unless her ears were deceiving her, he was a few steps away from being engulfed by the storm himself. Hearing him scream would have been so cathartic.

Tanya had to give up on the daydream, however, as her spell started timing out prematurely. The spell lost more of its potency to the chaos surrounding her than she had estimated.

"My head…it's too much. Hngh…"

"Stay with me, Tanya! What is being tested here?"

Fire erupted in her eyes as she peered past the storm to blow the MP's lamp to smithereens. The explosion caused the earth to shake, so it was impossible for him not to realise the folly of goading her more.

The MP stupidly chose to stand his ground and Tanya was willing to show him the difference between bravery and suicide.

"I'll give you props for coming this far, but if you keep annoying me…" she said through her teeth, fending off the cascading pain to the best of her ability. Rather than wait for a response, she decided to drive the point home by lifting the MP off the ground and yanking him into the storm with her. The magic at her disposal was powerful enough to lock him in position without as much as a thought of resisting. One false move and she would squash him like a bug. "What. Should. I. Do."

"I don't know!"

Tanya grunted. He's made a false move. "Useless."

As her magic squeezed the air out of him, he spat out, "But I know what you shouldn't do!" The pressure levelled off; Tanya showed her willingness to entertain him by not adding more to break his ribs. "Look around you. It's everywhere. You can't stop the poison from leaking inside you. Segmentation won't solve that. It'll leave you crippled…"

"What else did they try?" Tanya applied more force to motivate him to be quick about it. Her patience was running thin, just like the time left to save herself. The MP sounded too knowledgeable for his line of questioning to be a mere emotional reaction. Tanya had a hunch why it was so.

"Protective barriers, setting the mine on fire, causing an earthquake."

He had told the truth about witnessing the so-called _calibration_ before. The listed methods were a natural progression for an Aerial Mage in distress. If defensive spells such as mental and physical isolation failed, offensive spells were to be engaged. Tanya was wary of the latter group because spells behaved unpredictably in the mine. The possibility of an explosion spell materialising in her own body instead of the designated target was enough to stop her thus far.

In essence, it was impossible to fight elinium, which left flight as the only feasible option. Tanya surmised that her predecessor, whose attempts the MP was invariably describing, died before they couldn't get that far.

"What about breaking to the surface?" She grinned at what sounded like the winning choice. The blood seeping from her gums showed how close to the edge she actually was.

The MP shuddered in her magic grasp. It wasn't fear of being squashed, only a recollection. "That's why they couldn't find the body."

"But you did, didn't you?" Her magic pulled him in so close bloody spittle landed on his face. He faced down instead of replying, to which Tanya responded by slowly twisting his arms and legs backwards. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

He obeyed.

If Tanya willed it, he would have been dismembered in an instant. She gave him a chance to redeem himself by reiterating the question: "Did you or did you not find the body?" The twisting would continue until she was satisfied with his answer.

"I did."

"Howww? How-how-how?!" her shout degenerated into pained howling while she racked her brain. The facts didn't add up. He should have succumbed to the mine's curse and lost his mind then and there. Tanya was on the verge of ending it all and the MP wasn't even complaining. In fact, he should have been complaining about being crushed and pulled apart, which Tanya continued doing because his answer left her none the wiser.

"I have zero magical aptitude…"

Tanya released him. The MP groaned when he fell to the ground and that was when Tanya finished connecting the dots.

She should have noticed it sooner. His fecklessness, his obviousness–a plain, inert, blank spot dominated by her magic.

Unlike her, a genius magic user, the MP was fine with being pulled into the red storm. His skin didn't look like it was going to separate from the rest of his flesh and he wasn't bleeding out of every orifice, also unlike Tanya. He retained his sanity and managed to stay relatively cool while Tanya subjected him to physical torture.

Tanya made a mental note to define her actions as _enhanced interrogation techniques_ , should the need to write a report arise. She had the luxury of making such a note because she has finally obtained the definitive answer.

"You'll be kissing my feet if we survive," she told him and focused on dissipating the sparks flying around her.

So, it all came down to _magical aptitude_ , which Tanya referred to as mana pool capacity. Schugel's operation orbs required enormous mana reserves to function. There were two reasons behind it, the first being the structure of the operation orb, namely, the number of cores and their processing speed. The second reason had to do with the properties of elinium that the cores were made of. Until now, Tanya's speculations about said properties did not form a coherent whole.

The MP's explanation helped her put the main pieces into place. Elinium had a high affinity for mana, which resulted in the well-nigh irresistible pull that a Type 95 operation orb exerted. Despite this affinity, the activation threshold for an elinium core remained absurdly high. For an average Aerial Mage, the threshold was a saving grace because they'd need to commit to a mana burst just to activate it and collapse from exhaustion before it would become an existential threat for everyone in the vicinity.

Tanya was not so lucky: she was gifted with the ability to open the mana floodgates wide enough to overwhelm Schugel's thirstiest operation orbs. As such, she had to keep her mana flow, accelerated by elinium's pulling force, in check to prevent an already saturated operation orb from going critical.

Criticality was elinium's greatest vice. By pulling a lot of mana very quickly, elinium contributed to potent, high-precision spellcasting–it acted as a catalyst that purified and supercharged a mana reaction. Ergo, it further escalated the extreme inputs required to keep it running. A Mage with the capacity to operate an elinium operation orb was more likely to self-destruct while learning to control inputs of that calibre than reach the conscription age. Learning to control the supercharged outputs was a challenge in a league of its own: having fed the operation orb enough mana to raze a city, it was awfully difficult not to raze said city.

The damn thing being radioactive was a tiny footnote, considering the above. A material subjected to such extremes for a long amount of time was bound to become radioactive even if it wasn't so in the first place.

Therefore, Tanya had to expunge all of her mana and leave nothing for elinium's toxicity to piggyback on to her body.

"You want my mana, huh? Get a load of this!"

Having learnt to resist the operation orb's pull and meter her mana consumption, Tanya had to fight the nagging in her head about being wasteful. She had to do it in order to survive and, if the situation warranted the abuse of restorative spells, more power to survival.

The first order of business was queuing up an addiction-inducing dose of painkillers, followed by anti-inflammation and stimulation techniques. The resulting cocktail of magic chemistry was definitely illegal in its physical form. Once it started coursing through her bloodstream, Tanya became calm, alert, confident–she was on top of the world, the unparalleled master of the universe that the most diabolical of devils could not bring down.

She laughed at her adversaries.

As more and more mana flowed into the operation orb, she splurged on fanciful spells, such as high-power scans that acted as surrogate X-ray vision. She repeatedly shock-froze and heated up any elinium the scans pinpointed with the intent to make the daft ores suffer for their transgression.

Tanya felt lighter than a feather. She twirled in the air, playing with the surrounding sparks before forcing them into the operation orb to be extinguished like the pointless ambient mana fragments that they were. She sucked the storm in like a black hole and exhaled happily, having overcome the last sign of her suffering.

Her limbs still didn't function properly and her senses were impaired by the terrible experience leading up to the epiphany, but she didn't care. She was alive and well, supported entirely by her will power and the mana acting as its conduit. Her limbs could have been severed and she would be able to walk. She could stop and restart her heart at will. Tanya was in control of everything. In control at last.

The knowledge that she had the power over every atom in the mine, going all the way up to Schugel's shelter, was a delectable change. If she wanted to, she could do anything to him and he'd be powerless to stop it. He saw the readings. Schugel's equipment on the surface level registered Tanya's power. His breathing was quickened, his temperature–elevated, but his forehead was cool; he was sweating bullets. Tanya made Schugel nervous. She exceeded his expectations and, if she really-really wanted to, she could make that the last thing Schugel got to know in his life.

But Tanya was above such petty shenanigans. She would finish what she started here and return to have a hero's welcome. They would hold a feast in her honour, offer her medals and recognition of the highest degree in the form of a cushy desk job. The future was looking bright.

She registered some commotion near her when the blackout ended and the lift whirred to life. The MP was probably coming over to congratulate her. Tanya's senses weren't sharp enough to read his facial expression, but he was saying something, or was it Schugel from the speaker? The voice sounded more distant than before.

"Incapacitate her by any means necessary. I want her to live."

There was a dull sensation in the back of her neck. Tanya didn't understand what it meant, nor did she recognise the words spoken.

"It's the operation orb. Distract her."

A cold hand touched her operation orb. The hand warmed up in an instant, maybe even caught fire. Tanya wasn't sure. All that she knew that she was perfectly content with how things were. She was invincible.

"Sorry about this, Tanya. Your luggage won't carry itself."

What happened next puzzled her. There was a flash, a bang and a nudge to her leg. Her fleshy senses were useless at discerning it, but the mana flow registered a small metal object lodged in her muscle tissue. Warmth was leaking out where it went in. Tanya promptly fixed the irregularity by pushing the object out with the help of her mana and creating a mesh of micro-thin barriers that stopped the leak while replicating the shape of the flesh inside the gap that formed.

Tanya wanted to ask a question, but her lips wouldn't move. She wanted to reach down and touch her leg, but her hand remained still. Playing around with mana to perform such menial tasks was a chore, anyway. The things she didn't need could rest. In fact, the earlier excitement appeared to have taken a toll on her energy. She felt sleepy.

The dullness in her neck returned with a vengeance. She identified the culprit as the butt of the MP's sidearm. He hit her with it after firing at her. Tanya figured that she should have been upset by this. She promised herself she would be. Right after a short nap.

"Let's not keep the ambulance waiting. Out with the old, in with the new…"


	38. Strange Bedfellows

"Hang on, Tanya. You'll make it there."

The soothing tone shed some light on Tanya's state. She received free encouragement from her caretaker, a sign of being in dire straits and unlikely to survive until the end of the rescue attempt. A lapsing consciousness and sensory dysfunction were obvious signs of severe trauma. She was too numb to check whether she could move. If she did, the movements did not register.

* * *

,

* * *

Subdued echoes floated in the background of Tanya's dizziness. She was on autopilot, drifting wherever the current would take her without a second thought. Had she focused or tried to piece together the conversations taking place, she may have felt something: a reaction, a recollection. Right now she was drifting and it was all she had the willingness to do.

"This corpse belongs in the morgue, Engineering Director. We're not taking responsibility."

"Hey! Take that back! She's still breathing. See?"

"I'd cover the face and call it a day… It's bizarre."

"She'll live. There is no alternative. "

"Don't ask for the impossible, sir."

"I'm asking for a miracle. That is all."

"Strap it in. I'm not keen on a corpse reanimating on my watch."

* * *

…

* * *

It was a cold cruel world that Tanya got accustomed to loathe. Whenever she regained awareness, she expected to be struck down. Harder. Lower. The lashes never failed to come. Hence, she regretted waking up and wished for the quiet dreamscape to take her back. She could help it if she remembered how, but a corpse had no such memories to speak of. She was drifting downstream and it wouldn't take long to reach the sea. The waters were suffocating, but never enough to let her drown in peace.

A sharp pang to her chest, a stabbing sensation in her arm, and she would find herself thrashing on the surface again. The stream that has taken her wasn't just cold. It was cruel.

"You've barged into my operating room for the last time, Engineering Director. I suggest you do not interfere unless you are inclined to see Second Lieutenant Degurechaff in prosthetics."

"I could not care less about her body, only her aptitude as an Aerial Mage."

"Our objectives are misaligned, it appears. Calling on staff to escort you out would cause an undue delay, so, with due respect…"

"I will leave immediately, on two conditions."

"Spare me the details, Engineering Director."

"No transfusions."

"Are you mad? Get this man out of here."

"I also insist on a member of the testing facility's security crew being present…in the role of an observer."

"We'll accommodate, as a personal favour to you."

The nature of the favour brought her chills. It gave rise to a lashing that gripped her consciousness and held it a hair away from returning to peace. White pain dulled to red, but stopped short of becoming black. She was in limbo, face-down.

* * *

..

* * *

That state wouldn't last. No matter what they did to keep her from sinking to the bottom, it was a temporary solution: kicking the can down the road one more time before giving up. In the end, she was either alive or dead, not both. The echoes in her head paid it no heed.

"Poor, unfortunate girl."

"Is there a difference between the two?"

"Hmm. She does deserve a generous cash grant for her work. Wouldn't you agree, Engineering Director?"

"This breakthrough is a collective effort and Second Lieutenant Degurechaff has already agreed to my terms."

"What a poor, unfortunate girl... Please forward my regards when she wakes up, if you don't mind. These wilting flowers don't do her justice."

"I doubt that will be necessary, Chief of Security."

"Oh! Lest I forget: the Manufacturing Director would like to discuss her prospecting technique at the earliest convenience. He was deeply impressed by her ability to locate and identify precious minerals."

"Indeed."

Were they congratulating her or was it a funeral? Tanya could not tell the difference and she had a hunch that neither did the talking echoes.

She envied those flowers.

* * *

.

* * *

Tanya's discomfort started taking shape. Shifting, tearing, leaking non-stop. The harsh world held her hostage, having withered away her resistance and undone any attempts to escape. Respite was a myth. The increasingly hostile tones surrounding her proved that she was getting worse, not better. Anticipation of the next lashing was now engrained deep in her subconsciousness.

"Diagnostics are a hoot."

 _Die._

"Don't jest. Why did you come here?"

 _Let me die._

"I wanted to personally thank you for what you did. We've had a good run. The promotion is just a cherry on top."

"I expect the Intelligence Bureau to agree with your sentiment."

 _Please_?

"Speaking of which, there's some private business I'd like to conclude with Second Lieutenant Degurechaff before I depart."

 _No. No more business. Put me to rest._

"What business can you have with an unconscious person?"

"It's best you leave the room…"

 _Yes. Leave. Both of you. Leave and never return._

"I will do no such thing, and _it's best_ that you explain yourself."

Tanya heard an exasperated sigh that could have been her own. The heated discussion was getting on her nerves and she soon realised that she had no voice in the matter. They'd to as they pleased without paying heed to what she would say, if anything at all.

Why wouldn't they? They were a part of the world she was trapped in.

"Second Lieutenant Degurechaff spared my life twice. That is a debt I've accumulated thanks to working with you."

"Yes, and you've settled that debt by saving her."

 _Brazen-faced lies._ The ones that had pulled her out of limbo left her powerless, shackled, an idle observer of the vile things happening to her. If this was what it meant to be saved, she wanted nothing to do with it or with the people responsible.

"Once. I'm grateful for the chance you gave me because she hasn't named a price the first time."

"Implying a payment in kind…"

 _Implying that you should suffer like I am._

"Exactly. The second time, she made a very specific request, which, I believe, you've recorded."

"There are no records of her tour of the coal mine. Magic interference damaged the monitoring equipment."

 _Magic?_ Tanya seemed to recall magic being of great importance to her, but the memory didn't fit the context of what she was hearing. The two men were calmly deciding the value of her life, a discussion that would end without any input from her. There was no room for magic in this cursed world.

"It's a request you've witnessed, at least."

"Mhm. I believe it's time to replenish Second Lieutenant's IV drip. I will fetch a nurse."

Footsteps, a creaking door–there was movement that left Tanya surrounded by less hostility, but the questions raised by her predicament multiplied and festered. Her mind behaved like Pandora's Box by exposing her to an unending procession of dreadful events that may or may not have happened.

Rummaging through flashes of her own dread, Tanya established that she was in a medical facility that had dedicated staff and equipment. Her inability to interact with the world and the mention of an IV drip suggested that she was one of the facility's patients, undergoing treatment.

Why was she there? What happened to her? Who were those men talking about her?

The first two questions were closely connected and trying to answer either of them left Tanya in a blank state. As soon as she processed what looked like an answer, her thoughts scattered and returned to square one. She recalled experiencing a similar condition in a testing hangar after going on a rampage that almost left her identity shattered.

That memory seared the feeling of regret in her mind. If she ended up in hospital due to a relapse, her only hope was that the tribunal would show leniency in consideration of her age. Another disaster caused by her would have explained everything perfectly, including the earlier conversation.

It left the question of the identities of the people in the room with her. There had been three in total, none of whom Tanya assumed to be medical staff. The Military Police was a solid guess. A local MP did owe Tanya a favour and the topic of promotion hinted at work relations, including the disparity in the speakers' rank. The purpose of their visit was a mystery, however.

Her brain worked overtime to piece together a feasible explanation. The MPs were there to _conclude business_ with Tanya. One of them–presumably the leader–had left, leaving two to administer the _conclusion_. Of those two, one hadn't breathed a word, electing to monitor the situation as it unfolded.

 _Could it be?_

Her mindless rampage, the repayment of debts, the need to reach a conclusion. Could it really be?

"Keeping things off the record with you was fun, Tanya."

 _Wa-wa-_ was _fun? Oh no…_

They have come to execute her. The Military Police would put down an unconscious little girl like a dog.

"The lengths people will go to avoid the embarrassment of explaining how a little girl landed in this meat grinder… I think I understand them now."

 _Stop! It can't end like this!_

Tanya thrashed in the prison of her mind, disconnected from the physical world. She cursed the defeatist resignation that had overcome her moments ago. She didn't want her life to be taken from her. Tanya was supposed to be the master of her own fate. No one else had the right to decide when she would go.

And yet, her body wouldn't budge. Her scramble for life failed to convert into actions or anything that could sway the heart of her executioner.

Her feet felt cold all of a sudden. The fear that gripped her must have elicited a physical reaction, anticipating the inevitable.

"Take care of yourself, because only you can."

With that, the door slammed shut and Tanya opened her eyes. The gun she had imagined to be pointed at her wasn't there.

Neither were her executioners. The cool sensation at the tip of her toes was still there, so she couldn't have imagined everything, but why were they gone? Existence X guaranteed her a life of misery and letting her off the hook the moment she was at her lowest sounded too good to be true. This had to be a trap.

The brightness of the outside world was hurting her eyes. When she closed them and tested the rest of her body for responsiveness, she realised that everything else was hurting, too. Groggily, she lifted her head off what seemed to be a feather pillow.

"Uough…"

She blinked a few times in hopes of regaining focus. What she saw drew out a perplexed look.

"I'd call you a sight for sore eyes, but life's a bitch."

Tanya vomited and dropped her head back onto the pillow. She was too weak to keep herself upright. The identity of the one addressing her, the silent third person she had sensed, further reduced her motivation to interact with her surroundings. This predicament could barely compete with being shot in the head.

She confirmed that her mind wasn't playing tricks on her and buried her head deeper in the pillow. It was too bad to be her imagination.

"Sales Director… What did I do to deserve this honour? Khu." Speaking felt like a chore and the phlegm stuck to the back of her throat made her voice crack.

"You blew up a mountain."

"Oh yeah. That was fun."

The Sales Director glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "Looks like you've had even more fun after that." He was in a hospital bed next to hers. His neck had an imposing neck brace, so he couldn't turn his head to face her.

"Looks can be deceiving."

He laughed at Tanya's quip, regretting it in an instant. "Ah, ow. It hurts to laugh."

Tanya secretly envied him because the tiniest movement, even breathing, caused her pain. She wanted to get up to properly examine her state, but she didn't expect the findings to cheer her up. Her toes were cold and wet for some reason despite being fully covered, which meant that she still had toes. Debilitating wrist pain proved that she hadn't lost an arm, even though it made her hesitate to try moving her fingers.

"How long have I been here?" she asked eventually.

"Two weeks, I think. That's when I requested sleeping pills to overcome your snoring."

"Eh?"

The Sales Director looked her way again and a smug grin showed up on his otherwise pitiful face. "Don't worry about it. I couldn't use that excuse while I was alone in this room." She had the urge to poke his peepers out to reduce the annoyance he was giving off. Even in hospital, bedridden with a neck injury, he found a way to exploit her. Monsters populated middle management, regardless of the historic period.

"Why did you do it?" she asked.

Tanya didn't need to say more because he knew exactly what she was referring to: he drove a convertible towards a mountain that Schugel was to fire a nuclear artillery shell at, with Tanya's magic serving as ignition and targeting. The mountain had been cordoned off, meaning that he couldn't get too close to ground zero even if that had been his intention, but the recklessness was suspect, given that sales reps were sales reps because they were resistant to suicidal tendencies. Those in the sales business who survived the rat race to become department heads often reached a peculiar state of mind that Tanya defined as a mixture of egotistical pomp and gag-inducing optimism. Such jerks had an unyielding desire to live, if only to annoy the world a day longer.

The Sales Director was a shining example of his craft's most loathsome traits. This made his actions all the more troublesome, as they went against a salesman's instincts. It was downright impossible to seduce a narcissist into a trade that would cost him his life.

"Would you believe I did it to have another one-on-one with you?"

"No."

"Pity! I like it when folks keep it simple."

It would have been easier if he had lost his sense of humour. Though, the insulting expectation that Tanya would take his words at face value warranted a more straightforward approach.

"You're not a complete moron, Sales Director. I suggest you stop acting like one."

He looked away and stayed silent for a few seconds. Tanya celebrated the occasion with an imaginary victory dance. She got him good.

"Schugel's experiments really did you in that time, huh?"

Tanya didn't want to play this game of verbal ping pong anymore. The Sales Director sounded serious about sparring with her even though she had just woken up from a coma.

"I'm not here to listen to a recruitment pitch."

"You might as well listen to what I have to say before the Engineering Director returns."

He dangled a carrot laced with poison in front of her, but a carrot nonetheless. It probably wouldn't hurt to listen and the Sales Director's animosity towards Schugel could give Tanya some useful dirt.

"We're both in Elin Hospital. I have a neck injury and I can't begin to describe the gossip surrounding your arrival."

Tanya's memory was foggy about the episode between entering the coal mine and waking up in this hospital. She didn't know whether the Sales Director was aware of this issue, but she could afford to be honest in her reaction because he offered an account of what happened while she was unconscious.

"There were whispers of a team of experts flown from Berlun to operate on a _charred corpse_ that was somehow breathing despite having no pulse. The crack team and all the hearsay disappeared the same day you were brought to this room. An outstanding coincidence, wouldn't you say?"

He was obviously messing with her. He had to be. Tanya couldn't begin to fathom the issues with having _charred corpse_ added to her official résumé. Knowing Schugel, he was bound to sneak that phrase in twice if that were the case.

"Yes, a coincidence. I've no recent recollection of being a corpse."

Her own reply sagged Tanya's mood further every time she replayed it in her head. Severe burns helped explain her current pain, but being referred to as a corpse by medical staff gave her a bad feeling about something worse yet to come. A body that could breathe despite having no pulse was unheard of and Tanya wanted to convince herself that the Sales Director was either lying or has been lied to.

Tanya worked under Schugel, whom the Sales Director disliked, and it was therefore convenient to hurt Schugel by using her as a proxy. The problem with that line of thinking was that the Sales Director purposefully made the impression that he was pulling punches. The weight of the blows took time to manifest, like the effects of poison.

"My company is not quite pleasant to you, is it, Tanya?"

"I am tired and you're not helping…"

Her frustration seemed to amuse him. Tanya didn't bother to look his way to check if he wasn't faking it.

"Let's make a deal. The pain in my neck is kind of unbearable and I'd gladly get off your case if you found a way to fix that for a little while."

"I'm an Aerial Mage, not doctor."

"Precisely. Unlike a doctor, you can do magic."

Tanya smiled at what she imagined. The smile caused her lips to crack, prompting her to assume a neutral expression. "Firing an explosion spell would probably solve the neck pain, but so would a bullet."

"I have a feeling you're too weak for serious magic right now."

Yes, she was playing right into his hands merely by acknowledging him. Tanya was aware of that. However, she wanted him to be aware of the things she could do to him in her current state. While she hasn't decided that killing him would be most beneficial to her, snuffing out the heat in his side of the room to make him shiver was an apt demonstration. That much was naturally within her capabilities.

"Alright, alright. You got me. Let me sweeten the offer. Do this and I'll owe you a small favour."

Men in power traded favours more often than tangible goods. Unlike an exchange of goods at a specified price, favours were nebulous concepts that were risky to engage in. Repaying a debt to a loan shark was easier than calculating the amount of interest a precious favour could entail. As such, it was customary to overpay to avoid running afoul by remaining in debt in the eyes of one's benefactor.

If Tanya were dealing with an honest person, she would be confident in recouping her investment with a handsome profit. Having a salesman on the other end of the trade guaranteed disappointing results.

"How small are we talking?"

"Things that can be done by pulling loose strings. No harm, no foul."

"Hmph. Deal."

Tanya clinched it in a blink to avoid unnecessary complications. The deal was a bargain: she would get some time alone and be owed a favour for the price of an easy spell.

She proceeded to cast the spell, thus sealing the deal and making it impossible for the Sales Director to renegotiate the unintentional two-for-one. The matter was doubly amusing to Tanya because she caused the explosion that gave the Sales Director the neck injury and now she was selling him magic painkillers for an additional fee.

Negotiating with a salesman in agony was justice.

The Sales Director sat up when he felt the spell take effect. "That's the ticket! Ah, I missed being able to turn my head without wanting to die. Now, please excuse me. I need to make an urgent phone call."

"I'd hurry up if I were you. Spells expire."

"Oh? How long do I have?"

"Half an hour at most."

"Is powerful magic really this weak?"

"Who said anything about powerful magic? A small favour means a small spell. Now scram."

He grinned as he jumped in a pair of slippers, careful not to step in the puddle of Tanya's vomit. "Consider that favour repaid."

Tanya pouted when she realised how he got off the hook. By ordering him to leave the room, she triggered the favour because not bothering her and not being in the same room were different clauses. In the end, the bargain was an illusion.

"I had to open my mouth. Bad mouth. Bad." Tanya put her hands on her cheeks and pulled in a playful display of self-punishment only to stop when a surge of pain reminded her of her condition.

Her fingers were bandaged, as were her hands. Touching her face felt weird, as if her skin was covered in something that made it hard. The charred corpse story suddenly became a lot more realistic.

The time for subjective reflection was over. With a swift motion, Tanya removed the covers to look at the state the rest of her body was in. She was horrified. The red stain on the sheets going along the length of her body and the dampness of her back magnified the dread.

She has been here for weeks and she still looked like a piece of meat held together with bandages. This was after treatment and being given considerable time to heal. If her state was terrible now, what was she like when they brought her in?

The sight of the door handle moving down to open put a spanner in her speculations. Tanya hid underneath the covers again and placed her head back on the pillow. She figured medical staff would appreciate a patient like her taking it easy.

Her expectations lasted until the person entering opened his mouth to speak, "I saw our mutual colleague sneak past the nurses. You wouldn't happen to have anything to do with his sudden burst of stamina?"

"It's nice to see you, too, Doctor Schugel." He was the last person Tanya wanted to see. A doctor, but the kind that caused pain instead of easing it.

" _Professor Schugel_ ," he stressed.

"I don't care and neither should you."

Schugel folded his arms. He held his distance to Tanya, having stopped two steps after going through the door. "How are you, Second Lieutenant?"

Tanya didn't feel like entertaining his antics. He saw what she looked like and probably smelled it, too.

"I need a mirror. Give me a mirror!"

"It's too early to make demands. You haven't healed yet."

"Healed from what? What happened to me?"

Schugel's beady eyes flickered at the question as his posture relaxed somewhat. Tanya may have revealed to him more than she was intending to. "You don't remember?" He paused to give her time to answer. Seeing that she wouldn't cooperate, he continued, "You fell down and had an adverse reaction in the Elin coal mine. There was a power outage, so it took time to retrieve you. We're still investigating the cause."

So that was that. He took her plight and threw it back in her face. It was a bureaucratic non-answer that technically addressed the query without providing any useful information. Schugel couldn't have been more transparent about his reluctance to discuss the matter if he shrugged his shoulders.

"What about the MP who accompanied me?"

"I believe he's been promoted to regional HQ and you're unlikely to see him around here ever again."

The half-smile that had momentarily appeared on his face melted away, along with Tanya's chances to understand the events that put her in hospital. Schugel messed up big time and refused to take a shred of responsibility. He deserved to be called out about it.

"I don't trust a word you've said."

"Hoh?"

There was no point in antagonising Schugel because he was too stubborn a person to cave to outside pressure. Furthermore, Tanya worked under him and would face backlash for speaking out of line. This should have been enough to stop her, yet the present conditions of their engagement allowed Tanya to take charge. She wasn't intending to get anywhere with it; Tanya wanted catharsis. She wanted to hurt the man who made her suffer and didn't have the guts to own up.

"Since when do you substitute facts for vacuous beliefs? You're a control freak who excels at knowing what your underlings are up to at any time of the day."

He laughed. She hadn't heard him laugh at her before. It was sickening. "That backhanded compliment aside, you are mistaken. Though, your trust is irrelevant as long as you follow my orders."

This was the closest to an admission she was going to get from him. Schugel has done something inexcusable and it was Tanya's job to find out what it was exactly. Achieving this goal would definitely relieve her of his command.

"Feel free to investigate in the meantime or do whatever it is little girls do in hospital. I have yielded authority over you to the medical staff until you recover."

 _Challenge accepted_.

The door opened, prompting both of them to assume a more neutral stance as if the discussion never happened. It was the Sales Director.

"Am I interrupting anything? I'm sorry. I was heading out, anyway." As he turned to leave, having likely gotten the gist of the situation by eavesdropping, a hand pushed him back inside the room. A nurse had followed him.

"Oh no, you don't! Mr Sales Director, sir, please do not overexert yourself. It's too early for you to walk on your own."

"Silly me. I'll calibrate my internal clock accordingly."

The innocent joke left Tanya wide-eyed as a repressed memory strove to the surface of her consciousness.

"Ca-calibrate?"

She has heard this term before and it was used to describe something that were to happen to her. Her body shook in revulsion while her heart pounded like a jackhammer. Before she knew it, Schugel had left the room and more medical personnel rushed in.

Tanya grasped at her hair to alleviate the stress, but her hands didn't find any. Her heart sank at what it meant and she found her actions growing erratic. She tapped into her mana reserves in search of consolation.

"Restrain and sedate her," she heard a tall man with glasses say. The reflection that she saw in them was not of a cute blond girl, but of a monster.


	39. Goldfish

Moaning that was not her own woke her up.

Tanya didn't know how long she was unconscious. It was dark in the hospital room and it wouldn't have surprised her if they kept her sedated for more than a day. The Elinium Factory's Sales Director moping in the other bed probably had the answer to that.

She waited for him to quiet down and asked, "How long was I out?"

"Who cares… It's the middle of the night."

The Sales Director was as helpful as ever. Tanya didn't hold that against him, though. A civilian with a painful neck injury was bound to be irritable. Compared to what she got to experience, he had it easy, but Tanya could rely on her magic to lessen the pain while he had to call for help every time. This was Tanya's chance to squeeze information out of him on the cheap. Since Schugel refused to tell her anything about the cause of her injuries, the Sales Director would do as a source. The fact he hated Schugel improved his standing in Tanya's ranking, from deplorable to mildly annoying; Tanya hadn't forgiven him for acting like a jerk back at the factory.

Hence, exploiting the Sales Director's pain for personal gain was a morally rewarding task.

"Need any help?" she teased.

"Yes. Please kill me."

"No."

"Sadist. You're worse than Schugel."

The retort pleased her. She knew that the Sales Director could have been acting up his suffering for pity points, but she wasn't concerned while she had all the aces. A mercy killing would have made for amusing negotiations, though.

"Half a kingdom for a good night's sleep… This power struggle is taking too long."

And so, the man alleged to be in terrible pain returned with an invitation to trade. The random mention of a power struggle insinuated that Tanya could learn valuable information just by engaging him. The medication she received while unconscious eased her anguish, so it was easier to focus on securing a profitable arrangement.

"We can make a deal."

He sighed demonstratively. "You've nothing that I need."

Experience with Schugel's abuse of semantics helped Tanya crack through what sounded like a rejection. _Want_ and _need_ had different meanings. The Sales Director _wanted_ to get some quality rest, which he could do without as he did every night prior to Tanya's arrival.

"I can knock you out for a few hours. It'll be painless." She purposefully left out that she'd ask for something in return.

"Yeah, no. If you're not going to kill me, you can go sell your wares next door."

Deflecting her offer with an incredulous demand was a ruse supposed to catch her off-guard. Albeit the cheap tactic wouldn't have coaxed Tanya to change her terms, she pretended to be troubled by his insistence.

"But…"

"I'm planning to moan in pain until you give me one for free."

On the surface, it sounded like he was underestimating her. Tanya didn't let that get to her, though. The trick was to make him play by her rules while putting up a front that would make him vulnerable.

"I'll just ask to be moved to another room," she bluffed. If the negotiations broke down now, it would have told her that the Sales Director wasn't serious in the first place and there was an error in her calculations.

"This isn't a hotel. You're stuck with me and my pain until the morning at the very least."

The Sales Director's threat had no weight to it. Tanya assumed it was mere posturing to obscure a foregone conclusion: he would negotiate. She had the winning hand in this engagement.

"That's fine. I'll sedate myself and see you off."

He chuckled in response and hissed immediately after; it probably hurt to laugh. "Clever. No wonder you survived this long. Have it your way. Ah. Let's make a trade. You give me a restful sleep and I'll give you…an answer to a question."

It was a good starting price, but Tanya figured he could do better, considering that he would try to cheat.

"Three questions."

"What am I, a goldfish? Whatever…you're harmless. Three it is. But you have to make the pain go away first."

Tanya proceeded to fulfil her end of the bargain. Relaxation and pain relief spells were relatively safe to use on another person. Tanya's small frame further increased the safety because the dose she considered high personally would be diluted in an adult's body.

"I have a feeling they're doing this on purpose. They babbled something about a shortage of good painkillers in the rear."

The shortage didn't seem to apply to Tanya, who got drugged the moment she started behaving erratically. She presumed things were different for the Sales Director because he ended up in hospital due to his own carelessness.

He continued, "I envy you Mages. You can create your own medicine."

"Restorative magic isn't the same as medicine. It can make the symptoms go away or speed up healing, but it won't cure the common cold. If done poorly, the pain will pool up and hit you all at once when the magic has run its course."

"Here's hoping you've been professional about it…"

"Everyone is different. That's why Aerial Mages tend to heal themselves and rarely buff their comrades. It takes special training and a strong bond to be sure it doesn't misfire and cause more harm than good."

"I've suddenly realised that I've made a deal with the devil."

"Yeah, no getting out of this one."

"I'm just appealing to your ego, Tanya. Relax."

The Sales Director fell silent after that. Tanya was getting tired of the posturing, so she wanted to believe it was a case of him mellowing down since the spell took effect. It was fair to give him information about Aerial Mages even if he feigned ignorance to manipulate her, as he had divulged certain details that Tanya wouldn't have found out through regular means. The last thing Tanya wanted from their transactions was to end up indebted to the Sales Director.

"Right. Time to pay what is due. Why did you drive off to the mountain that Schugel blew up?" She wanted to kick off with an innocuous question to avoid raising any red flags. If the Sales Director followed through despite getting a pass to leave her empty-handed, it would be safe to probe him for information about her injuries afterwards.

"Isn't it obvious? You're smart enough not to take responsibility for that even though you were the one to fire the shot. Schugel alone doesn't have what it takes."

He exposed Tanya's intentions in a blink: by omitting her own role in the explosion, she rescinded her share of responsibility, which probably seemed dishonest from the Sales Director's point of view. Still, Tanya's dishonesty did not excuse him from providing a clear answer and she did not appreciate his attempt to wiggle out of what was agreed upon.

"I…am not satisfied with this answer."

"You were promised answers, not satisfaction." The Sales Director laughed at her in spite of the disparity in power between the two. He must have realised by now that if he consistently tricked her out of a prize, she would stop treating with him. "Ah, it's so good to laugh. I'm feeling generous, so I'll elaborate: Schugel is a nutjob with the potential to become something worse. When I saw your performance at the luncheon, I knew I had to act or things would get out of hand."

"Why do you care?" Tanya blurted out without thinking.

"I don't. Consider this your second question."

"That's not fair."

"Is it fair to exploit a man's pain to extract information from him?"

"Just as fair as it is to annoy the shit out of a little girl."

Each of them had a reason to pick on the other, so Tanya didn't feel guilty about resorting to an ad hominem attack. It was a form of release in an otherwise unproductive standoff.

"Don't get me wrong, Tanya. I like you as a person. I can't stand you for being Schugel's enabler."

"I'm not his enabler," she retorted. The accusation hurt because he had a point. Tanya could rationalise away the collateral damage of her actions under Schugel, but it wouldn't change the Sales Director's opinion of her. Likewise, he could think that the situation allowed him to be rude to Tanya and she would still hold him in contempt.

"Yet you advanced his agenda further than ten of your predecessors put together."

"When failure means death, the alternative is clear."

"Which brings us here. Not quite dead, not quite successful."

Tanya muttered, "I did not do this to myself on purpose."

"Neither did I. I was hoping for a few bruises to show that his stuff is too crazy to market. And now I'm out of the loop, confined in his backyard, under the watchful eye of his enablers, yourself included. He may have submitted a dozen proposals for new military hardware by now…"

 _Ah, so that's his problem…_ The Sales Director was also concerned about containing Schugel, and a successful test run of Big Robertha coupled with sufficient progress on the Elinium Type 95 Operation Orb would make that task a lot harder.

"My department would be charged with marketing his inventions and, if they fail, I will be the one to take the fall. Schugel can shield himself with academia and baulk at complaints. It's the Sales Department that holds the front."

"Which explains the power struggle you've mentioned…"

"I did? How thoughtless of me. I suppose, it's a foreign concept for someone with a military background, if I may call it that. Departments in the Krupps conglomerate work together, but each of them tends to have a different idea about the best way forward. Schugel's Engineering Department pushes the envelope when it comes to progress. The Sales Department prioritises potential sales while Manufacturing–ease of mass production. Ideally, we'd like a state-of-the-art product that is easy and profitable to make and that our clients would be happy with. Reality is far from ideal, as you've demonstrated."

It was the same in Tanya's previous life. The competitive atmosphere at work would pit departments vying for the same resources against each other even though they belonged to the same company.

Schugel's abominable disposition allowed him to forgo the ethical quandaries of making progress no matter the cost, and the wartime philosophy encouraged sacrifices in exchange for decisive victories. Schugel's uncompromising approach would have been more challenging to execute in normal times, but he was, regrettably, a reflection of the times: a madman in a mad world.

Tanya would put a stop to both.

"You have one more question," the Sales Director prompted. Taking him up on the offer now was too convenient to maximise Tanya's profit. The value of a favour owed increased with time and the Sales Director behaved as if he shared this belief with Tanya.

"I think I'll keep it. The sleeping spell should kick in at any moment."

"Thank you for your consideration, Tanya. I may have been too harsh with you when we first met." He yawned. "Let me tell you this: help me deal with Schugel and I'll help you deal with Schugel in return."

 _This looks like the start of a beautiful partnership…_ Tanya mused inside her head as the Sales Director fell asleep. When the coast was clear, a bitter frown sneaked past her neutral exterior.

 _Ha-ha, no. I'll screw him over while he's down and have him take out Schugel for me. Win-win._


	40. Incommunicado

For an Aerial Mage with an ocean of mana at her disposal, Tanya appeared to heal very slowly. Her burns were an eyesore to anyone who came to visit and the hospital was hard-pressed to show concrete results to avoid uncomfortable questions about funding and staff qualifications. If they couldn't help a precious military asset like Tanya–a VIP in all but name–get over a few burns, how could they be trusted with more complicated cases?

Schugel wouldn't accept responsibility and the hospital didn't see anything that would implicate him. He was a brilliant scientist whose meddling had to be tolerated to a degree because Tanya's prolonged stay put a stop to more than a few military projects. However, a nurse would put on a poker face to hide the palpable displeasure of having him around. Tanya suspected that they actually blamed Schugel for leaving the problem in their hands, but had to keep quiet as long as the evidence wasn't there.

The specialists flown in from the capital had taken Tanya's medical history with them and the little that was left in the hospital described Tanya as a burn victim, nothing more. Her status as the recipient of the Silver Wings Assault Medal was accepted as the reason for the exceptional treatment she was receiving.

Unbeknownst to those around her, Tanya funnelled her mana day and night to fast-track the internal healing process while leaving her exterior out of the loop to the best of her abilities. She figured that her unsightly appearance would pull at everyone's heartstrings regardless of what her vitals showed. The hospital seemed more eager to discharge an ailing yet smiling blond girl than an otherwise healthy hairless monster.

The next time Tanya woke up, she spotted Schugel sitting on the edge of her bed. Albeit he had gathered the courage to approach her, he held his head in his hands in frustration. It was a delicious sight.

"You're pathetic," she remarked, careful not to flash a grin.

He shot up and chucked a mirror at her. "Good news, Second Lieutenant. The doctors say you're feeling better, so you'll have a short walk later today."

Tanya ignored the mirror that she had requested upon recovering from a coma. Schugel had yielded authority over her to the medical staff, so she didn't have to be on guard around him as much, but something about him announcing good news in person sounded off.

"What's the bad news?"

"Pack your things."

Tanya blinked. She didn't bring any worldly possessions to the hospital, adding to the confusion she felt about Schugel's commanding tone. Her little vacation scheme may have been exposed too soon.

"I'm leaving?"

"There's no point in keeping you here. The testing facility is equipped to accommodate the remainder of your recovery process."

A potential saviour came through the door. It was the tall man with the glasses that had ordered her to be restrained. Tanya conceded that the man's forceful actions reduced his eligibility as a hero, but a doctor-doctor was leagues more favourable than Schugel-doctor. In the worst case scenario, she would be entitled to a proper explanation.

"Ah, Doctor von Schugel. I've been looking for you. You're not agitating my patients, are you?"

Hope lit up in Tanya's expression. She made a conscious attempt to stifle it before the cruel world could do it for her. It was too early to get excited, anyway; the man could be one of Schugel's secret enablers in the hospital.

"She's made sufficient progress to be transferred," Schugel insisted.

"I concur."

Both Tanya and Schugel gawked in surprise: "You do?" Tanya's expression was the polar opposite of Schugel's smile.

"Tanya Degurechaff is no longer in critical condition and we need this bed for more serious cases. She will be transferred to the paediatrics ward soon enough."

 _Phew_.

Compared to what Schugel had in mind, dealing with annoying kids in the paediatrics ward was a cakewalk. Tanya accepted the proclamation as gospel that her vacation would continue. Schugel, on the other hand, was fuming.

"This is preposterous! She is a soldier!"

"She's also a ten-year-old girl. Have some decency, Schugel. You will either get her in mint condition or not at all." Seeing that Schugel stood his ground with his arms folded, the tall man motioned at the door. "We'll be able to discuss this later. I have work to do."

"Thank you," whispered Tanya when Schugel was gone.

"I'm just doing my job, miss. How have you been?"

Tanya averted her mournful gaze, thinking about the best way to respond. Her mana flow was good as gold and the treatment she's been receiving, together with magic self-medication, nigh on guaranteed that her body was battle-ready. What remained was the pesky layer of skin everyone mistook for a reflection of her wellbeing. She didn't want to disappoint those people or call them out for judging a book by its cover.

"I don't know," she lied.

"That is to be expected. You've sustained a number of fairly unique injuries, the treatment of which will make it to medical textbooks once you're discharged."

The _unique_ part worried Tanya. It really shouldn't have because she was eventually going to revert to her facetiously gleeful self whether she wanted it or not, yet remaining ignorant about the cause of the injuries left her equally defenceless should she face the same opponent again. Knowing Schugel, reliving it was a certainty.

"Doctor. What happened to me?"

"I'm not sure. The team that put you back on your feet didn't share this information with me. The hospital's neurology department is merely following their recommendations and adjusting your medicine intake accordingly."

"Neurology?" She sounded taken aback by the news, as expected from a patient of her age. In reality, the doctor confirmed the rumour about the tight information security surrounding her case while the Sales Director's neck brace explained the rest. Still, she was a little girl in a cold cruel world and she had to play the part. "Why-why am I here?"

"We were concerned about the state of your nervous system." He paused for a moment to analyse Tanya's reaction. If anything slipped past her self-control, the doctor acted like he didn't pay it any heed. "But you've made steady improvement and it's about time Doctor von Schugel's high hopes for you are vindicated."

Schugel's hopes and dreams could die in a hole for all she cared. The axiom went that the higher his spirits were, the greater her suffering was going to be. It was in her best interest that the hospital staff moderated Schugel's propensity to harm.

To get a reading of the doctor's willingness to assist her, Tanya sat up and pulled her cover off, revealing the soiled bandages and the reddish stains her body left on the bed.

"What about this? Does this concern you?"

The doctor didn't flinch. His expression betrayed a hint of surprise at the swiftness of her movements, which made Tanya realise having made a mistake by trying to shock him this way. His response strengthened that impression: "Miss Degurechaff, I am confident the paediatrics ward has sufficient tools to accelerate the healing process of your burns. It's surprising that an Aerial Mage's physiology hasn't taken care of that yet, but you are fairly unique in many respects."

He stopped short of questioning her use of magic to appear worse than she actually was, even though he would have been right to do so.

Uniqueness was Tanya's saving grace. Like a never-before-seen exotic animal, Tanya received extra attention from her caretakers in exchange for casual photo ops that would propel their careers. The right to take credit in facilitating her recovery grew with every interaction and it wouldn't have surprised her if the transfer to another ward was a sneaky way to get more people involved. The hospital's management deserved a round of applause for exploiting her pain so expertly. Tanya wouldn't have arranged it better herself.

"What's my prognosis?" she asked. Since a transfer was in the works, she had to extract all the information she could from the doctor while she had the chance. His selfishness assured that he'd be eager to engage.

"As far as we're concerned, you'll be back to full health in a matter of weeks."

"As far as you're concerned…" She didn't like the sound of that. Albeit it showed that her assumptions regarding the transfer were on the mark, she understood that the neurology department would shirk responsibility for any health issues she might have later on. They only wanted credit for positive developments, a type of predictable attitude that gave public servants a bad name.

"Don't worry, Second Lieutenant. This episode won't affect your career prospects."

Problems with one's nervous system, the brain in particular, reduced the likelihood of receiving highly-paid work. Tanya figured this world had a poor understanding of the processes involved and was therefore averse to entrusting affected individuals. It was a black mark on one's CV, second to a stint in a mental hospital.

The way he phrased it implied that the Department of Personnel Affairs would get the watered-down version of what had happened to her, focusing on burns or some other temporary condition trivial to an Aerial Mage's long-term performance. Tanya's rushed transfer to the paediatrics ward supported this theory: if she could be grouped with the other kids for the greater part of her stay in hospital, her injuries would be dismissed as another workplace accident caused by Schugel.

 _Brilliant_.

Having noticed a change in her spirits, the doctor smiled and added, "Doctor von Schugel insisted that I told you that. He's a thoughtful supervisor, isn't he?"

She looked down at her bandaged hands, the result of Schugel's thoughtlessness. "I'd rather discuss treatment."

"I'll have a nurse tend to your bandages. Stay strong, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff. Children like you are proof the Empire has a future."

He turned to leave without addressing her query, meaning that treatment was not up for discussion.

 _So much for the Empire's future…_

Thinking a bit longer about other children like her, Tanya daydreamed that Existence X could have bestowed an unintended gift in the form of more magically-endowed atheists. The idea warmed the cockles of her heart: Tanya could raze both heaven and hell with such an army at her disposal.

For now, she had to concentrate on more pressing matters; she threw a pill bottle at the Sales Director, lying in bed next to hers. The impact got him to open his eyes.

"It's impolite to eavesdrop," she chided him.

"BS is BS, whichever way you look at it. Did you see how he ignored me like I wasn't even here?"

"You were pretending to sleep."

"Most people are pretending to do most things most of the time, but you can see past that façade if you try."

The shift from a complaint to a general statement looked innocuous on the surface, but Tanya knew better than to dismiss it as such. The Sales Director spent an outsized amount of time with her in hospital and had a chance to get a good measure of her character. His intention was to let her know that he had seen through her.

Of course, he hadn't seen through _her_ at all. The Sales Director merely called out Tanya's trumped up patriotism. On the other hand, thanks to her experience as an HR manager, Tanya read the sad-sad jerk like a book.

"I still can't tell which one of you is more unpleasant to have around," she said, referring to Schugel and the Sales Director.

"Fire away. I'm not your CO. There's nothing I can do to harm you."

"You're right, sir. You're not my CO."

She purposefully left out the statement she disagreed with. Status took precedence in conflicting reports, so any trouble she could cause the Sales Director by ratting him out for being the scheming hack that he was would come back to bite her twice as hard.

Tanya picked up the mirror that Schugel had left her, studying the changes in her appearance. She had _some_ hair, which managed to regrow during her stay. The fuzz on her scalp was a far cry from the unruly golden locks she normally wore, but it was a sign that some things took care of themselves if left alone.

"Pretty as a picture, aren't you?"

She wasn't, even disregarding the scar tissue. Bandages obscured most of her face and she could tell she was better off this way. While an operation orb would help a bunch by channelling healing magic to the right places, asking for one would guarantee same-day delivery to the testing facility.

"Time heals all wounds, they say," she said as she traced her hands over the bandages. Her cheeks were numb and the lips seemed swollen. The amount of medication she received precluded pain response as a measuring stick.

"Beautifully marketed BS. Had this happened to me when I were ten, I'd be a wreck by now."

"You _are_ a wreck. And you're rushing to conclusions," Tanya retorted.

The fact they were in the neurology ward spoke volumes about the seriousness of their condition. The inconvenience a fractured spine could cause was self-explanatory. It was her own health that concerned Tanya, though. Burns looked horrible, but they couldn't cripple a Mage, provided the internal organs remained intact. She couldn't find stitches or other evidence of an intrusive operation, which suggested that her placement had to do with something more precarious than blunt trauma.

A corpse that was breathing despite having no heartbeat, the way she was described at the time of arrival, put magic on top of Tanya's list of possible culprits. This magic went beyond the burning and tearing of an explosion spell; it was after the Mage's core.

The burns on the outside reflected what was scorched on the inside, including Tanya's memory of the event. She suspected that a spell had gone awry, as she was too deep in friendly territory to be attacked by a hostile force, but the enormity of the damage and the strange condition it put her in gave her second thoughts.

"The hair will grow back, I think," she reassured herself.

"You think? It's hair."

"That's the idea…" She put the mirror away and stared blankly, trying to piece her thoughts together. Then, she noticed the gifts and flowers left for her by the visitors.

The Sales Director was quick to intercept her surprise, "You're pretty popular around here."

"If there were more, it'd be a funeral."

"Don't worry; Schugel will try harder next time."

"I hate you. I hate both of you."

The Sales Director couldn't read the mood and he was about to say something repugnant in return, so Tanya knocked him out with a sleep spell.

Finally, she could have some peace and quiet to contemplate her next move before it was made for her. Her choices weren't exactly liberal while in hospital and she didn't want to hold on to mementos that would remind her of the setback. The get well cards, however, offered some insight as to who her friends were.

She found three in total. The first had a snappy "Get well ASAP" note in all-caps, co-signed by the local MP that drove her around and someone named Schuuugel. One contained flowery condolences from the Chief of Security, which Tanya wanted to rip to pieces out of spite.

The third one was a pre-opened envelope from the Imperial Military Inspector General of Logistics Office. Machine-typed, yet signed personally by the Inspector General, the enclosed letter gave Tanya the lifeline that she needed: the higher-ups knew she existed and they were aware of the risks involved in Schugel's equipment tests. Most importantly, from the perspective of a lowly Second Lieutenant, the Inspector General was an esteemed dignitary whose letter warranted an immediate response.

It was Tanya's turn to go on the offensive.

* * *

Author's note: 100k words. Woo!


	41. Summons

Tanya's transfer to the children's ward went without a hitch. Awkward stares and kid noises aside, the conditions there were more relaxed than in the neurology ward. Medical staff coddled her and eagerly accommodated her every whim, including mediation during Schugel's attempts to communicate.

The madman in charge of her hadn't shown his face since the relocation, a suspicious if convenient development. Inquiring about his whereabouts was natural for a ten-year-old girl in need of a father figure and she was confident that the nurses caring for her weren't secretly on Schugel's payroll.

She couldn't say the same about the hospital's management. They knew exactly who she was, where she came from and what they had to do to get rid of her. Simple gifts of fancy like the occasional lollipop or chocolate bar eventually turned into reminders that her vacation was coming to a close. When her Silver Wings Assault Medal was delivered to her, together with a standard operation orb, she realised that Schugel wouldn't take long to appear in person.

The neurologist's promise that Schugel would get her back only after she had fully healed was invalidated now that she was in the care of another department. The positive attitudes regarding her speedy recovery in the paediatrics ward forced her hand: a crimson light emanated from Tanya's room every evening after visitation hours. Healing spells catalysed by a simple operation orb exceeded whatever she could come up with on her own.

Gradually, she freed herself from the bandages and was allowed to roam the ward's hallways without apparent supervision.

Keeping appearances was a way of life in the Elin Hospital. Management approached Tanya keenly informed about her activities. Any correspondence she received came in unsealed envelopes, a single letter from the testing facility notwithstanding.

Anything she said or did could potentially reach Schugel's ear, which was why she hadn't put her plan into action. Schugel could front-run any written complaint and she didn't have anyone to voice her grievances to directly. Requesting a phone call with the Inspector General was too outrageous to try.

Tanya was running out of time. While in hospital, she could hope to slip through the cracks and have her letters appear in the outbox unchecked, but that method required procuring postage stamps in a way that avoided suspicion. She couldn't outright ask for them, nor did she consider stealing.

Despite these complications, the hospital offered opportunities out of Schugel's control. One such opportunity came to visit when she was inspecting the regrowth of her eyelashes.

"Your suite makes for stiff competition to some hotels, I see."

"Mr Sales Director, sir?"

A healthy tint of warmth spilled over Tanya's cheeks once she saw him, not in the least because the hospital gave her sweets, magazines and a radio to pass the time. The room's other furnishings befitted her implied VIP status, contradicting the Sales Director's earlier sentiment about inadequate care provided to patients.

Clad in a fine suit instead of the drab hospital attire, the Sales Director was likely already discharged and came to bid his farewell to Tanya. It was embarrassing that he got over a neck injury more quickly than Tanya recovered from a few burns, but that too was not the cause of Tanya's reaction.

He was on the way out. He came to see her in private.

The favour he owed her was ripe for the picking.

She didn't have to appear vulnerable to coax him into a trade, yet it was customary not to reveal one's cards on the first bid. For now, Tanya assumed the role of a sickly spoiled child whose special perks came at the expense of the other patients. Naturally, it was in such a child's interest that the Sales Director kept quiet about what he had seen. Gossip about Tanya's indulgence could reach inconvenient ears.

Not that he'd be stupid enough to tattle after revealing the irresponsible background of his own injury. It went without saying that a good deed would not go unpunished as far as Tanya was concerned.

"I didn't expect you to come unannounced…" she murmured. If anyone were to be eavesdropping on the exchange, Tanya's inscrutable indignation cast the perfect spell to obfuscate her true intentions.

"The nurse went to find a suitable vase for the flowers I brought. You can conquer the world with kindness, apparently."

This put Tanya more at ease. A coincidental heart-to-heart looked better on paper than requesting hospital staff to step away from Tanya's room. One did not normally ask for privacy unless foul play was in the cards, and the possibility wouldn't sit well with management.

"Thank you, sir, but I do not understand."

Gifts from people in a seat of power came with strings attached. In the Sales Director's case, they could hold scissors to cut the string that left him indebted to Tanya. She wouldn't' allow him to get out of the agreement this easily, but it still paid to be courteous and let him explain before attacking him.

"You gave me the best shuteye I've had in years. It's the least I can do to return the favour…"

He held a grudge against Tanya for the forceful sleep spell. That much was palpable. Getting down to business helped ease the tension, though. They've had more than enough time to simulate the conversation and select the optimal pathway.

Tanya would have preferred to find out more about her trip to the Elin Mine and send off the letters without any entanglements. However, the Sales Director dispatched the nurse and got Tanya flowers, so she had to compromise to keep the grudge from disrupting good business. If she got too greedy, she'd end up with nothing and their tenuous partnership in obstructing Schugel would fall through. On the other hand, that outcome would be better than letting the Sales Director exploit her generosity and convert the perfunctory display of kindness into debt.

Getting over with the transaction was the best option, since he had already mentioned a favour. Tanya had to stress that it was fair for her to add a condition of her own for the Sales Director to be free of his obligation.

"About that… I was saving something in case I wouldn't get to see you again." She produced three sealed envelopes. The one on the front was addressed to the Krupps' head office, to the attention of the Sales Department. The other two were not supposed to concern the Sales Director, but he flipped through them, nonetheless, inciting real annoyance from Tanya. "Do you mind?"

He grinned when he saw the intelligence Bureau and the Inspector General of Logistics Office as the recipients of the other letters. Tanya had put the testing facility as the return address, with her name on top. He must have realised what was expected of him.

"I'm not a goldfish, but I don't mind." Then, he quickly pocketed the letters and added, "Come visit my department in Berlun. There are people who'd love to see you and I'm sure you'd benefit from networking in your spare time."

A knock on the door saved Tanya from answering in earnest. The nurse came in with an imposing vase of flowers in tow.

"I am grateful for the invitation, sir. I will consult my CO if there's a need."

"Thank you for your business, Second Lieutenant. I look forward to profiting from you again."

They parted ways confident in having made a good deal even though neither achieved their ultimate objective. Tanya took a risk by trusting a person whose only redeeming quality was his hatred towards Schugel, but it was an opening she had to test before moving on to more serious matters. If the letters failed to produce replies in a reasonable timeframe, she would assume betrayal, exact her revenge and retry from the confines of the testing facility.

Naturally, those weren't all of the letters Tanya was intending to send out. She left one envelope, her tepid response to the Chief of Security's condolences, in a drawer to be delivered through regular channels. Everyone and their grandma could read that dull prose for all she cared. In fact, she'd have preferred for it to happen because it would have cemented her image as an honest and true soldier.

The other patients in the children's ward were harder to convince. Ever since she started using an operation orb to heal, they were too frightened to approach her, which disappointed her. Kids were ideal pawns for simple errands and they wouldn't raise suspicion by committing to stupid shenanigans. Stupidity was their forte.

And they've wised up to her. The strangeness of a mummy reforming into a cute blond girl to grace the hall in fatigues instead of a frilly dress made a lasting impression. The chills she gave the children whenever she exited from happy showroom mode, mandated during meetings with visitors, did the rest. An oddity like her would normally be bullied to conform to societal standards, but their self-preservation instinct, heightened by the fact they were recovering from various life-threatening conditions, kicked in without fail: when a weapon of mass destruction was involved, it was the environment's turn to adapt or face the music.

For this reason, it was a crying shame that she didn't get pulled into juvenile fights. After a prolonged period of licking her wounds, she yearned for a human punching bag to help her release the pent-up frustration. The hospital was a boon to anyone embarking on such humanitarian quests and Tanya would gladly lend a hand by healing the hapless volunteer before round two commenced.

Days went by, but a fitting target for her affection refused to show up. Until, one morning, a familiar awkward voice brought the full force of the cold cruel world back into the fray. It was Tanya's watershed moment.

"Second Lieutenant Degurechaff! You are hereby summoned to the Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility."

Tanya opened one eye to glare down the visitor who made it past hospital staff to enter her room unannounced. Upon recognising the corporal's forgettable face, she sighed and raised her head to greet him properly. The corporal was just another one of Schugel's playthings that was yet to break beyond repair, so a look of pity fit the situation better than scorn.

Pushing the most expendable personnel to face Tanya's wrath was a clever play on Schugel's part. Nobody would miss the corporal if Tanya were to mistake his forceful entry for an enemy attack. Hence, she abstained from mauling him even a little.

"Good morning, corporal. I see you are doing well," Tanya began. There was no point in chiding him for skipping the pleasantries. Subtlety was beyond his pay grade. "Are you here to tell me I've been discharged?"

"What? No! You are being summoned."

Tanya furrowed her eyebrows. Albeit the corporal had an underwhelming grasp of context, he stuck with the uncharacteristic verbiage, likely given to him during the mission briefing. That, in turn, implied a troubling development back at the testing facility.

Bad news came in three forms, by order of escalation: as written correspondence, a telephone call or in person. The latter could be partitioned further depending on the rank and affiliation of the messenger.

Seeing that the corporal was selected for the task, things were bad, but not catastrophic. Circumstances allowed for a member of Tanya's department to break the news to her, so she was definitely not under criminal investigation. It also meant that Schugel remained sufficiently in charge to make the selection.

Had Schugel been the one to come to fetch her, Tanya's reaction would have been limited to the usual apprehension because her departure had obviously been cleared by the higher-ups. Schugel wouldn't have missed the chance to gloat about his latest exploits or spare Tanya one of his prickly remarks, making a personal summons the preferred option.

The thought that he started acting considerate towards her after the incident in the mine had crossed her mind, but it was too generous to continue giving him the benefit of the doubt. Therefore, Tanya concluded that Schugel did not come to goad her for the sole reason that he couldn't. More precisely, he did not have a choice in the matter.

Tanya suppressed her welling curiosity. A substantial effort was required to get Schugel to yield. The fact that he did so in the end warranted caution. Something was up and Tanya did not want to get herself in trouble.

"That's an oddly specific term for Schugel to use," she replied, coaxing the corporal to elaborate. While Tanya would benefit from any additional information, she already had a basis to reject the summons.

"Exactly. It's not Schugel. It's the Audit Committee."

She nodded sagely. "Well, if I haven't been discharged, then-" Tanya paused the prepared rejection speech as she replayed the corporal's words in her head. Over and over again.

The message was as powerful as it was succinct: Schugel's plans were about to experience death by committee and Tanya could be the one to drive the final nail in the coffin. The auditors must have considered her an important part of their case against Schugel if they found it appropriate to interrupt her rehabilitation.

Tanya leaned forward, a theatrical look of concern taking over. "Audit Committee? What Audit Committee?"

"They're auditing the testing facility and they have questions for you. Please accompany me to the car."

Images of Schugel thrown in the slammer, stripped of his qualifications, his theories thoroughly debunked filled Tanya's imagination. It was delicious. It was glorious. It was justice! She didn't need the corporal to continue speaking to picture it all happen and see herself in the role of Schugel's executioner.

Tanya witnessed the terrifying consequences of a full-on internal audit in her previous life. On paper, an internal audit was an innocuous administrative tool used to periodically verify that the part of the organisation in question acted in accordance to procedures and regulations. In practice, given the context of the testing facility's status as a military installation, it was a form of punishment enacted by the higher-ups in response to receiving irrefutable evidence of the current administrator's wrongdoing. A number of steps normally preceded this option, including backroom negotiations, but the matter appeared to have escalated beyond a peaceful solution if the auditors started interviewing the rank and file.

The Audit Committee's report would be the end of Schugel's career.

Just as Tanya's eyes lit up with overwhelming glee, a doctor rushed into the room. He was staring intently at the corporal. "Absolutely not! Tanya Degurechaff has not been discharged."

"But, they insist on interviewing her in person!"

"Their insistence will have to wait for her full recovery. Until that time, they will have to settle for a phone call at most and-"

The doctor shut his mouth once he realised that Tanya had already dressed up to go and was beaming at him.

"Oh, I do not mind at all! I feel strong enough to return to the front line…today!" She saluted for effect. "The Fatherland beckons me to comply with the Audit Committee's request. Release me, so I may serve it with pride once more."

Following the fervent display of patriotism, Tanya found herself outside with a clean bill of health and a raging desire for justice.

She wouldn't have guessed that she'd be happy to return to the testing facility.


	42. Welcome Back

_Sayonara, Elin Hospital._

Joyous and beautiful – that was how Tanya saw the world outside. She has overcome a dark patch of her life and things were finally looking up. In a few short moments, she would secure a decisive victory over Schugel.

"The Audit Committee awaits me, you said?"

"Yes, Second Lieutenant. They can't finish the report without your input."

The corporal had said it twice already and she had heard him the first time, but she couldn't get enough. Pinching her cheeks caused a sensation too superficial to convince her that the dream was about to come true. The letters she had entrusted the Elinium Factory's Sales Director with must have reached the highest echelons of the Empire's bureaucracy if it came to this.

She spaced out in the doorway with a delirious look on her face. The hammer of absolute justice was now hers to wield and she would rather die on the spot than fail to deliver.

"This way, Second Lieutenant."

"You said…that they're waiting for _me_?" she asked in a dreamy tone.

He nodded in response, eliciting a squeak from the normally stoic Tanya. While her outburst seemed harmless on the surface, she had been designated as a weapon of mass destruction and one did not want to accidentally excite such a weapon's fissile material. The risk became apparent when she took out the Folkerr Mk 13 Operation Orb handed to her at the hospital and stared at it intently.

"Let's not burden the esteemed Audit Committee with undue delay," she whispered before raising her head to the sky. The orb lit up.

"Second Lieutenant!" she heard an alarmed call from behind, together with the sound of paper tossed into the air.

A sudden push prevented her from taking flight. She found herself lurched out of the doorway to the pavement. The culprit grabbed her arms once she found her bearings. She identified him as Schugel's assistant, whom she had last seen with a gun pointed to the back of his head.

"You!" Tanya exclaimed. How that nobody survived and got the nerve to assault her was none of her concern. All she wanted was for the nobody to learn his place: face-down in the dirt beneath her feet.

Having read the apparent threat, Schugel's assistant pulled out a pair of handcuffs, taken straight from a penitentiary facility. Before Tanya pieced the situation together, one of her wrists was locked in. The assistant proceeded to handcuff himself to her afterwards.

"You were dead! What is the meaning of this? You're so dead for doing this!"

Handcuffing Tanya was a big mistake on the assistant's part. Tanya used his lapse in concentration to throw him off balance and punch him down with his own fist. He fell like a sack of potatoes, his face planted firmly into the pavement. Tanya easily got on top of him and folded her arms, forcefully yanking his hand in the process.

The assistant would cry for mercy if he knew what was good for him. He did no such thing, however, likely rendered unconscious by Tanya's counterattack. It diluted her satisfaction somewhat, as did the corporal's muted reaction to the skirmish.

The corporal only cared about collecting the documents the assistant had dropped when he tackled Tanya. He had a hard time fighting the wind for every sheet until Tanya channelled her magic to bring the remaining ones to her. Among the documents, she spotted a cover letter handwritten by Schugel and a power of attorney granted to the assistant to settle Tanya's matters with the hospital. Schugel's cursive was difficult to imitate, which suggested that the two guys sent to get her were, in fact, acting on Schugel's orders.

Schugel was by no means an idiot when it came to assessing collateral damage, so he should have predicted that a botched attempt to restrain her would result in some violence, making his subordinates her personal fodder.

"Calm down, Second Lieutenant. This is for your own sake. Follow me to the vehicle and I'll explain," the corporal begged, hoping to retrieve the documents that Tanya was holding. The intensifying glow of her operation orb promptly dashed those hopes and he took a step back, putting up his hands defensively.

"No, you will explain now if you don't want a long vacation in intensive care." Tanya felt this was an effective threat, but the corporal looked confused by it. This gave Tanya pause: surely, things hadn't gotten so bad that Schugel's lackeys preferred to have their hands and legs broken rather than continue working at the testing facility? She nodded to herself at the possibility and rephrased the threat in such a way that did not sound like an offer: "Unless this was your plan all along, in which case I will convince Schugel to reassign you two as my practice dummies." Tanya was aware that some people would happily agree to those terms, but she had sufficient confidence in her colleagues' propriety.

The assistant underneath her fidgeted in response and started mumbling something into the pavement. Since Tanya couldn't make out what he was saying and he refused to lift his head, she tugged on his hair to help him talk.

"You were about to use magic equipment in a civilian area! This is insane! I also think you broke my-"

She lost interest in hearing the rest and let go, returning the assistant's head to the pavement.

"Ow. Now it's broken for sure," he mumbled.

The corporal gave Tanya a perplexed look, as if asking her whether she was done venting. She handed him the pages she had collected and smiled in return.

"Tell me more about the Audit Committee. They are waiting for me, yes?"

She followed him to the car, paying little attention to the handcuffed assistant she was towing on the ground. By the time they got seated, Tanya was free and the assistant had the full set around his wrists.

"Hey, you learnt new magic at the hospital. Neat!" the corporal remarked. Tanya knew that he was sucking up to her to avoid getting his share of pain for signing up to the task. Considering that he went for it in the assistant's company, who would definitely report this behaviour to Schugel, the corporal appeared to have switched sides to join the winning team. Team Tanya, to be exact.

The assistant was visibly troubled by the handcuffs Tanya manipulated with her magic, as well as his bleeding nose. Tanya shrugged it off: "I have no patience with people keeping me from testifying to the Audit Committee."

From Tanya's perspective, a car ride was an inefficient way of getting to the testing facility, compared to flying. On top of that, a flight spell wouldn't have caused any harm in a civilian area that regularly dealt with the consequences of Schugel's failed experiments. Breaking the assistant's nose was a necessary, if satisfying and accidental, move to keep him quiet. While Tanya had some trust in the corporal and his inexperience–he didn't have the capacity to obfuscate–Schugel's assistant was too close to the madman for the underhandedness not to rub off on him. Regardless of Schugel's initial arrangement, Tanya forced the assistant to take the backseat, figuratively and literally, next to her.

With the doors closed and no one near enough to eavesdrop, the corporal began with a heavy sigh. "I apologise for the misunderstanding. The Engineering Director asked us to take care of you and-"

"Handcuffs were the first thing that came to your mind?" she interjected.

"No, those came with the assistant."

"…Obviously."

The corporal's statement puzzled Tanya, and her abrasiveness was supposed to hide that. Asking him to elaborate would have been problematic because the handcuffs had signs of long-term wear whilst the logo confirmed that they belonged to a local penitentiary. What was the assistant's role in all of this?

She was thrown into disarray further when the corporal gave her the full document folder he had gathered.

"You'll find The Audit Committee's questionnaire somewhere in the files. I'll brief both of you about the rest on the way to the testing facility."

Tanya took a moment to decipher the mention of a shared briefing before returning to the topic of her testimony to the Audit Committee. Schugel's assistant was acting in an official capacity, but his knowledge about current events at the testing facility must have been limited if he also needed the briefing. That, in turn, implied that he was unable to participate in those vents. His swift handling of handcuffs, which surprised her at first, as well as their likely origin, suggested that things did not go well for him since the start of her field trip. He did appear to run off during the MP raid of the testing facility and was rightfully apprehended for that reason, so it must have taken him a while to clear everything up and prove that he wasn't the enemy spy they were looking for. Tanya should have expected that kind of stupid self-sacrifice from Schugel's assistant, but the exact motive didn't really matter to her as long as he wasn't the enemy spy. A more pressing matter was vying for Tanya's attention.

"Questionnaire?"

"The Engineering Director pushed for written testimony. Purely out of concern for your health, of course."

Purely? Hah! She could imagine Schugel pull off saying that with a straight face. The auditors were bound to mistake his sarcasm for genuine concern, too. Tanya snorted at the realisation that the corporal's naiveté had also been taken in.

"Oh, _of course_ -of course! Good old Schugel. He's such a kind, charitable…Schugel."

That was as far as she could go without triggering her gag reflex. Out of all the Schugels Tanya encountered, Schugel was the kindest and most charitable one. Her one hope was that she would never encounter a worse Schugel out there. The thought of a competition between two madmen gave her the creeps.

"His proposal would have gone through had I not suggested an alternative to the Audit Committee's Chairman."

Without meaning to, Tanya made a high-pitched noise akin to _squee_ upon hearing the words "audit," "committee" and "chairman" mentioned in the same sentence. She huffed excitedly after putting them all together and nodded as she glanced over the documents given to her in search of the committee's questionnaire.

"That's fast work, corporal. I'll put out a good word for you."

She was surprised that a drone like the corporal had showed initiative, yet it was not uncommon for low-ranked salarymen to bring important matters to Tanya's attention during happenstance encounters in her previous life as an HR manager. In this case, Tanya chalked it up as a third-rate issue not worth dwelling much on.

The questionnaire, on the other hand, was worth every second of her time. It had all the right words and more. The questions covered everything from the disastrous tests of Items 95A and 95X, to the so-called test inside of a furnace as well as the incident in the mine that led to Tanya's hospitalisation. The verbiage also implicated Schugel's cronies, including the MP that got away.

Whatever worries Tanya has had about making an appearance in front of the Audit Committee withered away completely once she glimpsed at the list of questions. Her testimony would be a striking blow to Schugel's career. Tanya was also positive the committee's report would be her ticket to an easy life in the rear as compensation for experiencing his cruelty. Who knew Justice tasted so sweet?

"Excellent. This is going to be great."

Having found what she was looking for, she discarded the rest of the documents and kicked back as the engine whirred awake. This was going to be a lovely ride. Even the assistant's grating voice didn't get on her nerves.

"Um, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff, ma'am? I don't mean to be rude, but what's so exciting about an audit?"

"Ah, you're Schugel's assistant, yes. I-see-I-see. You might have a different perspective. Hmm. Rest assured, you're safe with me and I hold nothing against you."

The assistant stared at the handcuffs as if to contradict her. His nose was still bleeding, but he had no means of pointing it out to strengthen his case in a way that wouldn't upset her more.

"Umm…"

She realised that he wanted her to remove the handcuffs with magic. Unfortunately, the problem was his own doing and she had no inclination to help. Had he approached her like a proper human being in the first place, she would not have gotten him to punch himself or break his nose while falling from the self-inflicted punch. It was unthinkable that she would reward such burdensome behaviour by providing an easy solution.

"Those came with a key, didn't they?" she teased. If he had a key, he would have used it by now. This was a matter of putting a price on the assistant's folly.

He confirmed Tanya's assumption by lowering his head. "They're safer without…"

"So it would appear… Need any help?" The assistant must have learnt the rules of the game from Schugel because he refused to approach her directly. He wanted to frame Tanya's help in removing the handcuffs as compensation for using magic that put him in this state. Tanya saw through this attempt and pressed on: "You're going to get some awkward stares at the testing facility when they see you in those."

The teasing seemed to work, as the assistant offered his hands to Tanya and looked away. Had the circumstances been different, she would have caved in out of pity, but she was dealing with a Schugel loyalist, who deserved every bit of her bullying.

"You're so embarrassed it's cute. What would Schugel say if he found out I jailbroke his assistant?"

He said nothing in response and Tanya let the conversation die off, much to his dismay. She found it amusing because he relied on the same subtle tricks as Schugel did despite lacking his experience and authority to pull them off.

Tanya caught on to the reason behind his intransigence. It was the corporal. Schugel's assistant didn't want to yield to Tanya in front of a witness, either out of personal pride or to protect the image of his boss. This complication formed a predatory grin on Tanya's face. Complicated situations warranted extra pay and Tanya was willing to accommodate the assistant at that price.

 _Read my lips: you owe me._

The assistant nodded.

It was a done deal. She freed him sooner than he finished nodding in agreement. Tanya even fixed up his bleeding nose as a bonus. The bonus being that Schugel wouldn't ask her obtuse questions about his assistant's injuries if he didn't see those injuries.

She left out the assistant's shoulder that she dislocated while dragging him. It would have been odd for him to return from the penitentiary unscathed, as they must have done worse things to him there. Imagining them, coupled with his increasingly frustrated expression once she returned the undone handcuffs, put her in a whimsical mood. It could have been more perfect only if she had managed to get the corporal indebted to her in one fell swoop. Still, she didn't let that minor detail dampen her spirits because the grand prize awaited her at the testing facility.

In the meantime, she decided to entertain herself with the two stooges provided to her. They must have done something to slight Schugel if they were selected for the task. For once, she didn't mind being his attack dog. After all, the master would soon become fodder.

"Let's get down to business. I seem to have terrible luck with ride partners, so I'd rather find out all there is to it before something happens to both of you."

The corporal turned his head to look at Tanya through the rear view mirror. "Eh?"

"What did I miss?" she asked him directly, somewhat displeased. She had gotten used to the tone of Elin Hospital, where the rules of court intrigue penalised such bare-faced incompetence. The corporal's poor listening skills didn't affect his trustworthiness as a source, but Tanya preferred to have him replaced with a higher class of dolt.

"You've been gone for–what was it–two months?" the corporal asked.

"Give or take."

"Yikes! You've missed a lot. Klusross has gotten quieter since you left. They axed pulsejet development and Schugel's gotten…a little more unhinged."

A malfunctioning pulsejet had been deemed the cause of the Elinium Arsenal's destruction, so the higher-ups' decision to halt development didn't surprise Tanya. She recalled the corporal's interest in becoming a test pilot, explaining the otherwise irrelevant mention. Talk of Schugel's insanity, in contrast, got her full attention.

"A little unhinged? Oh dear. What ever shall I do?"

"Toe the line, I guess. The ones advising him right now might not like your sense of humour as much as the old Schugel did."

"Schugel listening to advice? That's crazy!" she exclaimed, glancing at the assistant, who seemed indifferent. It reminded Tanya to mind her manners in his presence. Schugel may have been on the way out, but she couldn't say as much about the assistant or his role in the upcoming events.

The corporal laughed nervously at Tanya's facetiousness as the car went past the first checkpoint leading to the testing facility. She was about to follow up when a low-pitched noise disturbed her. The ground shook and she soon spotted a fireball in the sky above.

It was an explosion spell, a powerful one at that. Tanya had intended to dismiss it until she felt multiple magic signatures in the vicinity, complimented with a blossoming barrage of magic destruction that challenged the morning sun in brightness. Her back stiffened at the possibility that her declaration of independence from Schugel may have been premature.

"Corporal, that's not how I imagined a quieter testing facility."

"Oh, yeah. This is new." He stopped the car and poked his head out the window to observe. The action in the sky intensified.

"Why did you stop the car? The Audit Committee is waiting!"

A magic bullet whizzed in front of the car, almost blinding the three with the intensity of the attached spell. The spell went off once it hit an obstacle in the distance, leaving a spectacular crater. Tanya furrowed her brows at the blatant show of force coinciding with her arrival. Schugel wanted to intimidate her and he had somehow found capable Aerial Mages to do his bidding. Where did they come from and how many did he manage to procure?

"That's why," the corporal retorted as the car resumed forward. "I'm as surprised as you are, Second Lieutenant. Schugel mentioned that he'd give you Special High Intensity Training, but he didn't elaborate or give me an ETA."

"Special…High Intensity Training?"

"You're with the Tactical Training Department, right? Schugel must've been worried you turned soft during your stay at the hospital and went all out to whip you into shape."

"Tch. I hope that wasn't a direct quote from your briefing, corporal."

Tanya held her emotions under wraps, still confident in her victory. Schugel wanted to go down fighting and Tanya was ready to oblige him to it. The fact he secured the backing to accomplish this at the precipice of his career showed how volatile the situation really was. The intricate light show he treated Tanya with pointed at two Aerial Mage squadrons sparring in formation and, knowing Schugel, he had other tricks up his sleeve.

"What is Schugel up to? It's done. The Audit Committee is here. I. Am. Here," she whispered to herself, trying to reconcile the Audit Committee's summons and the show of force in front of her. No one in their right mind would give Schugel the manpower to execute this if he were, in fact, facing dismissal.

"Looks like one of you is running out of time faster than the other."

She paid the corporal no heed, having reached the entrance to the testing facility. Schugel was waiting for her, clad in his Sunday best, grinning from ear to ear. This was not the crushed has-been she expected to encounter.

"Welcome back, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff. How are you?"

Tanya felt her spirits hit rock bottom and start digging.


	43. Green Mile

Schugel embodied the supremacy of form over substance. From his perfunctory greeting to the Aerial Mages sparring in the background, the circumstances of Tanya's return that he had manufactured behind the scenes were supposed to corrode her resistance into nothingness. The message his stature carried was obvious: in this domain, Schugel was still king and he would fight any attempt to overthrow him.

A seasoned bureaucrat like him could put a serious dent in Tanya's career path, so crossing him was risky. Had it not been a matter of survival, she would not have resorted to ratting him out to the Audit Committee. Whatever the outcome of the committee's work at the testing facility, honouring their request for an interview would have an immediate impact on Tanya's relationship with Schugel.

The committee's report, however, would be churned through the due process before its conclusions could arrive on the Inspector General's desk for anything to change. Knowing Schugel, he'd exploit this time gap to make Tanya's venture inside a furnace look like a restful retreat compared to what he had in store now. The other Aerial Mages and Schugel's mysterious advisors mentioned by the corporal were probably involved.

Regardless, staying at the testing facility was a sure death sentence, which Schugel would try to carry out on a daily basis. Tanya did not hold any false hope about things improving under his command and therefore had no reason to change her mind.

Try as he might, Schugel would lose this battle. He may have avoided being ousted thus far, but he hadn't come up against a crafty little girl like Tanya.

She saluted him after exiting the car. "I am alive and motivated to finish this, sir."

"Excellent! The Admissions Office will process your return and we'll begin the next test. You have to make up for the lost time."

Schugel put Tanya in an uncomfortable position by omitting the main event, her appointment with the Audit Committee. It was essentially a peace offering: Schugel would carry on as normal, provided she forewent her opportunity to speak out against him. Taking the initiative to challenge the course of action laid out in front of her would put her in the role of the aggressor. Schugel could frame it as an instance of insubordination and abandon her when it was time to accept responsibility for the damages.

Tanya was painfully aware that she caused people harm out of malice during her tenure and it would be difficult to attribute all of it to Schugel. Dragging his name through the mud could also come back to haunt her, so she had to take caution and level her discontent to avoid looking hostile. The Audit Committee had a righteous task to accomplish and Tanya was charged with helping them.

Yes, her decision to cooperate with them was righteous and Schugel's obfuscation shouldn't stop her. In order to have peace, she would go to war with Schugel.

"Of course. As soon as the Audit Committee is done with my interview."

He clicked his mechanical ocular as he lowered his frame to get a better measure of Tanya. Intimidation was a likely goal because there was no way to tell what he was thinking behind the steely gaze. He showed consideration by not immediately berating her for the refusal to follow his script, but it was clear that she put him in a foul mood. A part of his bitterness came from the fact that he couldn't always decipher her intentions. Psychological warfare designed for adults did not quite work with children and Tanya was adept at projecting her girlish vulnerability to short-circuit the opponent's critical thinking.

Schugel could have imagined that he read Tanya like a book, but the book he was reading was the one Tanya had given him on purpose, just as she did to everyone else. The salaryman behind the façade remained inscrutable.

"Your lack of foresight disappoints me, Second Lieutenant," he said in the end and turned away from Tanya. Whether the action was an honest display of his disappointment or a calculated act meant to discourage her, Tanya didn't care. He continued after a brief pause: "The corporal will chaperon you while I have a word with my assistant."

Tanya returned to the car to sit next to the corporal while Schugel's assistant left. The living quarters were a short drive away from the entrance.

Once the car was sufficiently far from Schugel, the corporal glanced at Tanya and said, "Foresight. That's new…"

Her heart squeezed at the realisation that Schugel had stepped away from his usual subtlety. He had chided her for being unfocused, distracted and unmotivated. Even looking forward beyond accomplishing the order given to her was enough to earn his ire. This time, however, he called her out for doing the opposite: not seeing far enough.

Could it be that Schugel had prepared for this outcome and was saddened that she fell for an obvious trap? No. Definitely not. This was not a perfect information game and he couldn't control all the actors at the same time. More importantly, the Audit Committee was too risky to use as bait because their report could have material consequences.

As long as that assumption held, Tanya had the upper hand. Her victory hinged on one assumption.

Tanya shuddered before responding to the corporal. "It's just a mind game. He thinks he's still in control."

Once they reached the living quarters, the corporal gathered Tanya's documents and asked her to wait while he left to clear everything up at the Admissions Office. The confusing technicalities of her return to the testing facility after an unplanned two-month break were likely to put her in administrative hell without a mediator's assistance. While she didn't want to rely on one person's kindness, she conceded as she didn't have anyone else who'd be up to the task.

The corporal seemed to have gained a lot of experience in administration since he had given up on his dream to become a test pilot. Unfortunately, in the brass' eyes he was just a drone doing odd jobs for Schugel, so his chances of getting a promotion were slim now that he had been assigned as Tanya's minder. Dealing with undesirables carried a stigma regardless of the assignment's merits and the corporal's association with Tanya meant that he'd also be on the receiving end of Schugel's ire.

Had Tanya been able to afford charity, she'd have tried to extricate him, but she had her own hide to worry about. She couldn't repay a favour if she were dead.

The toll of Tanya's thoughts broke through her composed exterior, prompting the corporal to lower his voice as he addressed her upon his return: "Is anything the matter, Second Lieutenant?"

Tanya sighed in exasperation. She didn't need his pity. She needed the Audit Committee's pity if that could advance her agenda, yet she still had one more gatekeeper to pass.

"Nothing out of the ordinary."

"The clerk is ready for you. I'll check with the Audit Committee in the meantime. I should be back by the time you finish up here."

She thanked him before making her way to the Admissions Office. Not much has changed since the last time she has been there. The box for outgoing mail had no death notification envelopes, which was a relief.

"Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff? Come in, come in! Don't stand in the doorway. We'll get you processed in a minute." The clerk waved her in while examining a letter over a peculiar candle. With an operation orb instead of a lit fuse, its light peered through the envelope to display the enclosed letter's text on the ceiling.

Just as Tanya thought about reading the projection, the operation orb placed on the candle cracked and the light fizzled.

"Oh dear…" The clerk was about to reach into a drawer in his desk when he took a closer look at Tanya and put out his hand. "May I have your operation orb?"

Instinctively, as if being threatened, Tanya grabbed hold of her operation orb and asked, "For what purpose?"

Albeit the answer seemed obvious, she didn't want to continue based on her own assumptions alone. The clerk has retained his post following a number of fiascos including the Intelligence Bureau's raid on the testing facility, which spoke highly of his administrative skills as well as his ability to get out of a tough situation unscathed. The thick document binder with the word "AUDIT" printed in capital letters that Tanya spotted on his desk suggested the clerk had privileged access to information.

The dry expression he gave her in return told her that she should not treat the clerk lightly.

"I don't believe you've handed it when you first arrived. Don't worry; you'll be able to get it back when you rotate out if you need it."

He was right. Schugel had chastised her for skipping this procedural step and it was in her interest to rectify the issue before heading to the Audit Committee. Her papers had to be pristine for the interview to go according to plan.

Tanya started doubting the likelihood of that happening, though. The clerk placed her operation orb on top of the candle to tease out its light.

"Oh, such a pure response…" he remarked at the bright red that filled the room. It was much brighter than what Tanya had seen of the operation orb that broke down.

"What's going on?"

The clerk placed his index finger in front of his lips and hovered the same envelope over the candle. "Just a standard procedure for outgoing mail. The Intelligence Bureau were very specific with their recommendations."

She watched words appear on the ceiling and quickly realised that she was not supposed to be a part of the procedure. The candle was projecting the contents of a personal letter sent out by a fellow staffer.

"It pains me to encroach on the corporal's correspondence with his mother, but we must follow protocol."

 _Mother. I am happy that your health is improving and I promise to continue sending a part of my paycheque to cover the costs of your medication. You will find 11 per cent enclosed._

 _If this week goes as well as the last, I should make new friends and get a promotion soon. Thank you for keeping watch over me during this time. I hope to come to your side for the holidays._

Before Tanya could protest the contents of a personal letter, including the recipient's full name and address, disclosed to her in such a careless manner, the clerk pulled out an envelope he had stowed away in his desk drawer.

"Oh, this one's for you. It's from the Elinium Factory, if I recall correctly."

Tanya bit her lower lip as she slipped the coveted letter underneath her uniform. Now the meaning of the audacious act got to her: the counter-intelligence geeks have found a way to read letters using magic without leaving a trace of their invasion. It was a worrisome development that could have repercussions down the line. The blurry image projected onto a surface was susceptible to obfuscation through code words or a writing style too difficult for an overworked clerk to discern, and the operation orb responsible for the projection didn't seem to last long, but this was just the beginning.

For some reason, she couldn't help blaming Schugel for it. He would have come up with something as terrible to buy time for his more destructive tendencies.

The clerk placed the corporal's letter in the compartment for outgoing mail prior to giving her a few forms to fill out, together with a letterheaded handout. "And here's your schedule. One equipment test before lunch and then a Special High Intensity Training session."

Tanya peeked at the handout while going through the formalities. The scheduled test had a surprisingly detailed description, by Schugel's standards: "Combined Item 95-series diagnostic and stress test with noisy inputs."

If Tanya didn't know better, the assignment's designation as a test would have been a relief. Tests entailed procedures and some form of oversight, unlike the disaster that befell her in the mine. To compensate for the limitation, Schugel upped the ante by classifying the assignment as a stress test and adding noise to the equation. This addition was especially worrisome because _noise_ implied _randomness_ , making it impossible to prepare for the outcome. Tanya didn't like the idea of leaving it to chance; chance was just a catch-all term for unknown variables that could be manipulated by someone else from the shadows. Dwelling on the implications gave Tanya a migraine.

To make matters worse, she apparently had to participate in a new type of activity, which she couldn't locate on her itinerary as described. "Special High… I don't see it."

"It's an acronym."

Tanya's eyes narrowed as she focused on what she had believed to be a typo. "Of course, it is…"

A knock on the door paused the conversation. The corporal has returned with the Audit Committee's blessing. They were ready for her.

The clerk happily sent her off despite the interview not being present on her itinerary. She found out why after taking a closer look at the timestamps: she had an hour until the first test, a disturbing convenience, knowing who arranged it.

She was desperate to believe that the opportunity arose because Schugel has lost control of the situation. Tanya's implicit insubordination should have thrown a spanner in his works, so it was only logical that he would lay low for a while and lick his wounds, but Schugel's M-O defied logic. It was madness to consistently be able to predict a madman's behaviour and Tanya had to acknowledge that she had not stooped so low as to accomplish that. Sanity tasted bittersweet.

Then again, it was Tanya's best weapon to fight Schugel with: her sound mind trumped his lunacy. The Audit Committee would undoubtedly compare her testimony to Schugel's and double down on any contradictions. Audits relied on common sense, invalidating whatever outlandish excuse Schugel would come up with to avoid repercussions while vindicating Tanya as a victim of glorified torture.

"What do I need to know about the interview, besides the obvious?" she asked the corporal on the way to the Audit Committee's makeshift office in the living quarters.

"Tell them like it is. Just the facts, no sugar-coating…and no sudden movements."

It was promising advice. She could work with this committee. The part about sudden movements concerned her a bit, but committee members were probably aware of their status as pests on Schugel's turf and therefore put safeguards in place.

Once Tanya and the corporal reached the door to the Audit Committee's office, he addressed Tanya's lingering hesitation. "So, what's your battle plan?"

She grinned at the question. Tanya had no alternative to quashing whatever doubts remained. "There are two ways this can end. And in both of them I win.


	44. Judgement Day

Tanya took a big breath. It was time to start the show.

She entered the Audit Committee's office at the Klusross Army Air Force Testing Facility expecting the best, yet prepared for the worst. Her testimony would either decide Schugel's fate or let him seal hers. Truce was no longer an option.

From the onset, it seemed like she would be victorious. The three members of the Audit Committee sat alongside a massive desk eyed her with innocent curiosity. Those were the gazes of civilians foreign to the harsh reality of life in the military, where a little girl could become a killing machine.

"Outstanding."

"Very unusual."

While they emoted, Tanya inspected her surroundings. She didn't see any armed guards or sense the presence of another magic user inside the office, which relieved her. Other than a strange contraption, similar in size and shape to one of Schugel's monitoring stations, Tanya found nothing unusual in the room. A centrepiece in the form of a lonely well-illuminated stool was par for the course. The innocent eyes looking at her had made some preparations.

 _Cute_.

She saluted. "Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff, reporting."

The most senior of the committee members motioned at the stool and said, "Let us dispense with formalities, Second Lieutenant Degurechaff. Please, have a seat."

Tanya quietly complied with the request. The trick in passing an audit was not to provide the auditors excessive information. A random mention or hiccup in one's testimony could attract the auditors' attention and jeopardise one's case.

Another rule of thumb was not to appear offended by stupid questions. As impartial outsiders, the auditors needed to verify basic truths about site operations, including things a staffer would find glaringly obvious. Their strict, if not outright bull-headed, adherence to protocol frequently caused misunderstandings in Tanya's previous life, but she was confident this interview would go without a hitch. After all, she was just a low-ranking employee, who would not be held responsible for her supervisor's cockups.

"The Audit Committee is now in session. I will preside over Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff's interview as the Committee Chairman. The Vice-chairman and Secretary will assist us today."

 _So much for dispensing with formalities_.

The weight of the tools at an auditor's disposal encouraged a sort of superficial friendliness that calmed the oft-stressed interviewee while not crossing into chummy territory. Tanya was expected to reciprocate the BS, an opportunity she accepted with palpable satisfaction.

"I shall be in your care, then."

The chairman's lips curved upwards ever-so-slightly. Tanya's willingness to cooperate has been tacitly acknowledged.

"First, let us get a few things out of the way," he began and shifted his focus to the monitoring apparatus on the side, prompting the secretary to activate it as she stepped away from her typewriter. The apparatus whirred awake, several rows of red lights flickering chaotically. Once the flickering stabilised, the chairman continued: "With respect to the Intelligence Bureau's recommendations and the Acting Facility Manager's response to recent events, I must inform you that our conversation will be recorded. Do you have any reservations, Second Lieutenant?"

Tanya shook her head. It wasn't the correct course of action, given that body language was easier to misunderstand than a statement, but a little girl could be allowed to make an honest mistake. Sometimes, that was all it took to conduct undercover reconnaissance, an honest mistake.

"Please, answer clearly."

"I have no reservations, sir," she lied unconvincingly. The lights on the monitoring apparatus blinked in response and took a few seconds to even out.

"Hmm. I see. You are an Aerial Mage, correct?"

"I am an Aerial Mage, yes." The lights were all solid this time. Tanya had a bad feeling about the results of her impromptu recon idea.

"How are you, Second Lieutenant?"

It was at this question when she realised that things wouldn't go as smoothly as she had planned. An auditor would normally have no reason to ask such a question. Nor did it appear on the questionnaire she had received.

She suppressed a nervous tick as she answered, "Alive and motivated."

The lights on the monitoring apparatus went mad, giving the chairman pause. "How interesting." The chairman's monotone made it painfully obvious that he found nothing interesting about Tanya's answer. In fact, he seemed to be annoyed.

Based on the chairman's reaction to the apparatus, Tanya concluded that Schugel managed to slip a lie detector into her interview. He did it with the Intelligence Bureau's blessing, no less. Seeing that the apparatus closely resembled Schugel's usual monitoring equipment, it was likely capable of exposing attempts to tamper with its readings using magic.

There was a silver lining, however. Passing the lie detector test would give her words more credence and guarantee that her scathing assessment of the madman in charge would reach the brass' ears. All she had to do was tell the truth and outwit Schugel. His penchant for impractical designs made the latter half easier done than said.

"We will move on to the pre-approved questionnaire. Second Lieutenant, you have been engaged in equipment tests of Item 95A, Item 95B and Item 95X. Is that correct?"

"Correct."

"How would you describe these tests, in your own words?"

 _Torture._

She could say torture, right? Right? Maybe? Perhaps not in response to the first real question. That could mess up the rest of the interview. Tanya opted for starting with a more conciliatory tone to make room for the juicy bits. The phrasing was a matter of taste as long as she told the truth.

"In each test, I was given a piece of experimental equipment and instructed to manipulate it with magic in various ways."

Tanya noticed that the chairman glanced at the lie detector ever so often. The stability of the lights throughout this answer appeared to satisfy him.

"Have you been successful in those…manipulations?"

A trick question. Had she agreed to written testimony, she would not have encountered one. However, the inclusion of such questions increased the appeal of a personal interview. Tanya conceded that her preference was, on the surface, counterintuitive because it let the chairman put her in a difficult spot while a magic lie detector scrutinised her every word. The pressure exerted by this much oversight was bound to demoralise most people and cause them to break on the record, which, Tanya believed, was the whole point. She found the experience exhilarating. The brass would attribute the highest value to information gained under these conditions. Schugel wouldn't be able to escape the consequences of Tanya's testimony for sure.

Her advantage was further increased by her experience in HR management. She would game the system by consciously giving it the responses it was designed to extract: the auditors would see their target ensnared.

The lights started flickering even before she opened her mouth to speak.

"More or less."

The vague answer would act as a red flag to anyone even marginally competent in intelligence work while the lie detector's violent reaction took care of the uninitiated. Tanya was going to be grilled hard for this. She was on the edge of her seat, barely able to contain her excitement.

"Could you elaborate?" the chairman asked in a chilling monotone. It made Tanya tingly all over: he took the bait and let Tanya hijack the conversation, ignorant of her intentions.

"There have been many tests and my assessment varied between them. I can describe the tests in order, if permitted."

 _Permission for a full-on broadside to Schugel's career?_

"Very well."

Tanya licked her lips in anticipation of the justice she was going to deliver. She received carte blanche to go over every bit of her tragic placement at the testing facility. This was payback. Payback she hadn't dared to dream of. It was happening.

As if sensing the abrupt rise in Tanya's level of comfort, the chairman intervened with a follow-up question: "Which items did you test in the main hangar?"

The specificity served as a reminder that the Audit Committee approached Tanya at the end of their investigation. While the question's rigid structure helped her highlight the facts, it did nothing to further her agenda to sink Schugel.

She answered precisely and perfectly. Perhaps, this was why she received the next one the moment she finished speaking.

"Were there any casualties during the test involving Item 95A?"

"No."

"Did any equipment malfunction due to magic during that test?"

"Yes."

It was a lightning round. Tanya didn't get a chance to think this through because she didn't have to, and the lie detector showed a steady stream of truths coming out of her mouth, but the format cheated her out of reaching deliverance. More frighteningly, it could become dangerous at any second; if they really have learned a lot about Schugel's line of work as well as her involvement in some of the incidents, the next closed-ended question could be Tanya's last. The committee's impartiality would have to be her saving grace.

"What kind of equipment was it?"

The striking realisation that her saviours could torpedo her efforts to get rid of Schugel by structuring the interview in a way that insulated him broke past her calm and collected exterior. She has just received another very specific question, telling of the Audit Committee's priorities: all damages would be accounted for and the line of questioning would decide the scapegoat's identity.

"Monitoring equipment."

"Was security detail equipped to deal with magic present?"

"Yes."

The chairman leaned forward, choosing to ignore the lie detector's readings for a change. "Why do you think they failed to protect the monitoring equipment?"

"My magic was too strong for them."

The committee members looked at each other and said in unison: "Obviously." The secretary, who had been typing the entire time, stopped to whisper something to the chairman. Tanya's keen sense of hearing picked up the word "redacted."

Had she overstepped her boundary as a mere cog in the machine with that bold statement? The lie detector certainly didn't think so and the Audit Committee agreed, even if her admission seemed to trouble them.

After the exchange with the secretary, the chairman resumed the interview. "Second Lieutenant, were you given clear instructions during the test?"

She was. The councillor who got severely injured on Tanya's watch–not a casualty as far as she was concerned–must have made a conscious effort to avoid upsetting the auditors by formulating testing conditions clearly enough for an idiot to understand them. It did sound strange to her at first that the councillor sought feedback from her at every point because he didn't have the air of someone who cared. In the end, she got to find out that he did it to cover his own rear in case a crafty little girl decided to give the facility legal trouble. Schugel's underlings were surprisingly self-conscious. Not that she could blame them. They'd take the fall together with their master after the interview.

"Were you given the means to abort the test in case of an emergency?"

Was he asking about the safeword? No doubt about it.

"Yes… Wait, no! I wasn't given that."

Tanya hated herself for classifying that joke of a procedure as such, but getting bogged down by the details would do nothing to further her case. The most important thing right now was the fact that she hadn't been issued a safeword during the first test. It was dreadfully careless oversight on Schugel's part that lead to the councillor's injury and destruction of property.

She caught Schugel red-handed and the Audit Committee's bewilderment at her response guaranteed that he'd get what was coming to him. The lie detector confirmed the truth in her statement.

Even the slip of the tongue acted in her favour: she took up the role of a loyal employee, who was shocked to discover that a basic necessity had been omitted during a test. It was natural to assume from such a perspective that Schugel had testing safety covered that she had to jog her memory to acknowledge the opposite had occurred.

"Thank you for your honesty, Second Lieutenant. Moving on to the hangar test of Item 95X. If we go over the questions once again, would any of your answers be different?"

She didn't want to recollect that test. Tanya was ashamed of having succumbed to the insanity-inducing effect of Item 95X. She had surrendered her mind in order to survive and rode the wave of intoxicating power like a wild animal. Thankfully, the structure of the interview saved her the trouble of making this account public.

"Just the type of malfunctioning equipment and the inclusion of means to abort, sir."

"Was this, by any chance, the piece of equipment you're referring to?" the chairman asked when he pulled out a picture of the explosive collar Schugel had given her for the test.

Tanya shuddered.

"Yes. That's the one."

He didn't ask why it malfunctioned because she had already specified the answer in her blanket statement. Though, if she were pressed to provide more information, she would admit that in her mindless state she was too powerful for Schugel's explosive collar to take her head off.

It was best to shift focus to the next episode of Tanya's misadventures with Schugel. The chairman understood as much.

"Have you participated in any equipment tests at the Elinium Factory?"

"Yes."

"Were you accompanied by anyone on the way to the factory?"

"Yes. Two MPs."

"Elinium Factory records show that you were accompanied by one MP. Elaborate."

Up to this moment, the chairman avoided contradicting her and kept the format as Q&A, so the sudden change in tone was jarring in the context of the lie detector finding nothing wrong with her statement. Tanya got a useful glimpse of what would happen if she were to be caught lying in earnest. Pleasantries went out the window and uncompromising orders took their place.

"One of them died to the explosion at the Elinium Arsenal en route to the factory."

"How did you survive?"

This stupid question wasn't in the questionnaire. Tanya recalled the rule of thumb to retain her composure.

"Magic. Duh."

The secretary gave her a dirty look, miffed by having to include "duh" as part of an official document. Tanya could have done a better job in keeping her sharp tongue in check, but she wanted to make it crystal to whomever would be reading the report that her aptitude as an Aerial Mage was exceptional and had to be treated accordingly. She also wanted to see how the committee would react to her going off script. The results emboldened her.

"Why did one of the MPs accompanying you survive and the other didn't?"

"The one who survived sat directly in front of me."

While not technically a lie, Tanya had switched seats on her ride to the Elinium Factory to protect the MP who begged for his life. It was a facetious act to show the uncooperative MP the error of his ways. Had she wanted to, she could have saved both MPs without lifting a finger.

Tanya didn't expect the Audit Committee to be aware of this and was banking on their line of questioning to give her a free pass. In the worst case scenario, she could tell them that an Aerial Mage would prefer a small yet thick barrier over a flimsy all-encompassing construct in the face of an unknown threat. Trying to save everyone was a sign of greed that could lead to terrible consequences.

"Moving on to the Elinium Factory. You have been issued a custom-made fireproof uniform for personal use."

"Two of them," Tanya interrupted. The inconsistencies in the Audit Committee's papers piqued her curiosity over the type of punishment the ones responsible for compiling them would receive. If omitting the death of an MP bore the markings of a cover-up, she was at a loss about the subject of her uniform.

"Two of them?"

"Yes."

The chairman looked at the lie detector, which offered no consolation, and scratched the back of his head. "By any chance, have you produced one of these uniforms using magic?"

"I don't think so."

"Do…you still have either of them in your possession?"

"No."

"This presents a problem."

Tanya couldn't help agreeing with the chairman's sentiment. The Audit Committee members were clueless about magic and the likes of Schugel could lead them down the garden path if it weren't for the lie detector. Though, she recognised the appeal in making clothes out of mana. Had it been doable, it would have been done and they wouldn't be touching this preposterous topic.

"I am willing to assist in any way I can."

"Hmm. All right. There's no harm in trying this. Second Lieutenant, our records show that there had been one such uniform, but it is no longer on the books. Could you kindly enlighten the committee about the reason why?"

Tanya needed a moment to take in the downpour of contextual information. She played coy to buy enough time to process what it all meant: "Not on the books? Is that bad? I'm sorry, I'm not an accountant…" She didn't care that she accidentally disclosed her awareness of accounting terms in that response; the chairman's attention was elsewhere.

"Don't worry about that, Second Lieutenant. Do you have any information about the uniform that you think would be of use to us?"

It was a mind-boggling question. The Audit Committee must have taken a microscope to analyse the testing facility's finances if they found something wrong with the accounting of Tanya's lost uniform. This spoke highly both of the committee's attention to detail and Schugel's financial prowess. Tanya believed that the conversation would have gone differently if they had more serious questions about misappropriation.

 _Wait-a-minute. Does it mean Schugel passed on all accounts except for this red herring?_

The possibility presented a problem, one that Tanya had to address without delay. Thus far, the only other thing that Schugel could have been faulted for based on the contents of her interview was the omission of the safeword during the first test. The dead MP was beyond Schugel's reach and the rest could be attributed to Tanya being a handful. In fact, after going through her testimony one more time, she realised that it made her look worse than Schugel.

It was high time to change that. The Audit Committee would see Schugel as the madman that he was.

"The first uniform had to be discarded after the heat test and the second-"

"I would like to stop you right there, Second Lieutenant. Did you just say your custom-made fireproof uniform was lost due to a…heat test?"

Tanya's mental self-image grinned so widely its face split in half. She didn't let any of it leak outside, preserving immaculate composure.

"Yes." Her answer gave the committee members pause. They were eager to find out what sort of heat was used to destroy something manufactured specifically to withstand heat. "Don't look surprised. It was a furnace, after all."

Deafening silence filled the Audit Committee's makeshift office. The chairman confirmed that she wasn't lying and started rummaging through his notes like a student who didn't want to admit he forgot to do his homework.

"A furnace? Second Lieutenant, I'm not sure I understand."

"Fire, crucibles, molten metal. That kind of furnace. That's where I've been for the duration of the heat test." Tanya finished off with an innocent smile, highlighting the contrast between her demeanour and the work she had to do on Schugel's orders.

 _For the crime of putting an innocent child in an oven, Schugel is sentenced to…_

"Oh." The chairman drummed his fingers on the desk and looked to the other committee members for clues, of which there were none. He must have realised by now that Tanya Degurechaff was exceptional in many ways, including inconvenient ones, and her testimony could complicate the audit. It was his duty to act on the information provided to him, however, and he went forward with the next question aware that he could be stepping on a procedural landmine. "Would you grace the committee with information regarding the loss of your second fireproof uniform?"

His reluctance to pursue the topic of the furnace disappointed Tanya a bit, but she had more where that came from and the most painful parts were about to see the light of day. With a live recording and a lie detector as her witnesses, success was inevitable.

"I believe it was charred beyond repair. I was rendered unconscious at the time, you see."

"That was…enlightening. Thank you, Second Lieutenant… Let's go back to the questionnaire. Have you been to the Elin Mine?"

Tanya's heart skipped a beat at the mention. The apprehension she felt was instinctive, but she had to fight off the urge to flee from her memories and achieve deliverance through pain.

"I have."

"Who accompanied you?"

"The same MP and Engineering Director von Schugel."

He could either drop it like a hot potato or let her loose. Pragmatism demanded the former while an auditor's code of ethics begged for the latter. Tanya had already calculated several steps ahead in both directions as she waited for the chairman's next question with bated breath.

The chairman's expression darkened. Justice would triumph.

"You had to be hospitalised for more than two months after returning to the surface, yes?"

"Indeed."

She told the truth and nothing but the truth. She had the information the committee needed. She was ready to pounce like a predator and put Schugel out of her misery. All they had to do was say the word.

"Second Lieutenant, what happened to you in the mine? The Audit Committee implores you to speak candidly."

… _Schugel is sentenced to death. Second Lieutenant Tanya Degurechaff will carry out the bastard's execution in the courtroom. Bon appétit, Existence X._


	45. Punching Bag

Tanya's appearance in front of the Audit Committee has commenced. She was determined to expose Schugel's madness to the world and the lie detector the committee has brought along would guarantee her success.

The last obstacle between her and the Holy Grail was the answer that would sway the committee. She would tell them exactly what happened in the Elin Mine. Tanya's venture into the mine's depths was her most dangerous assignment yet and she was positive that more would come if her taskmaster wasn't dealt with promptly. Schugel had to go.

She took a big breath and gathered her thoughts for the final push. A bit of drama would spice up her testimony.

"I…"

The chairman of the Audit Committee leaned forward, paying close attention to what she was about to say.

"I…"

Everyone's attention was now focused solely on her. The secretary stopped typing and even the lie detector's idle whir didn't know what to make of the suspense. The events that left a deep mental scar and put her out of commission for months would be uncovered. She just needed to gather the courage to peer behind the PTSD veil and lay bare her anguish. The committee was willing to listen and they would hear what she had to say.

If only she could find the words to say it. Her memory glazed over and refused any probing attempts. Try as she might, she still failed to recollect those events, the traumatic experience preventing the information from reaching her consciousness. However, explaining this difficult state of mind to the committee in earnest would irreversibly tarnish her reputation. Memory loss at her tender age was unheard of and therefore unacceptable.

There had to be another way to tell the truth. The ever-observant lie detector's readings turned erratic and the chairman's features betrayed growing impatience. One false move and the interview would be over, granting Schugel the right to run wild once again.

 _Curses_. _Curses-curses-curses._

Her trump card was a dud. She couldn't find anything of use and she had to produce an answer that would satisfy the committee. Silence was not an option. She has gone too far to risk setting off the lie detector. Whatever the answer she would cobble up, it needed to be truthful and face-saving. She wouldn't let Schugel do her in.

On the contrary: she would have him get her out of the predicament by seizing the reality he had offered her.

"I've had an adverse reaction," she said flatly, mimicking Schugel's verbiage.

Committee members seemed unimpressed by the vague description. The chairman asked, "Is that all, Second Lieutenant?"

She hadn't thought that far. Tanya was prepared for countless situations the committee would put before her, but she had not accounted for self-inflicted failure. To make matters worse, she lacked conviction in any of the additional details she could provide them. They wouldn't need a lie detector to read her obfuscation.

As Tanya began lowering her eyes in defeat, she noticed a sharp frown forming on the chairman's face, which put her back into fighting stance. It reminded her of how Schugel treated her in a moment of weakness: he struck her down twice as hard. She would not allow the committee to force her to relive the shame.

They wanted a story she could tell with conviction and she was sure to deliver. Tanya segregated the part of her brain that doubted everyone and every thing every time and put up a mental barrier to protect what would become reality from destruction by her own critical thinking.

"There was a power outage underground, so the situation took time to address."

"Do you remember how you reached the surface?"

She could afford to be honest with herself for a change. "No, sir. I was unconscious at the time."

The chairman turned to the other committee members for input–of which there was none–checked the lie detector's readings and brought his attention back to Tanya. Much like her own, this man's face was inscrutable when he wanted it to be. The thoughtful visage he put up was a ruse; he had already made the decision about the way forward. Was he going to call her out or carry the interview forward to Tanya's time in hospital?

"Understood," he said, nodding. "That concludes your interview. The secretary will present you the transcript for certification."

It was Tanya's watershed moment. The little that she told them would never be enough to unseat Schugel, let alone grant her a prolonged rehabilitation period. She has taken her best shot and failed.

Just as she thought this was all a misunderstanding and she would get another chance, a question that would let her wreck Schugel's career, the secretary put the typewriter aside to bind the pages of Tanya's testimony. It was happening too quickly for her to protest. Tanya stared with her mouth agape at her dream being crushed by the unfeeling bureaucracy.

The Audit Committee was supposed to be working towards a brighter future, but any future with Schugel in it was the antithesis of that goal. Tanya did not understand how they managed to remain ignorant of this fact. By letting him remain the head of the testing facility, the committee was casting doubt over its own competence. They had to rectify this mistake!

"Is there anything else you'd like to bring to our attention?" the chairman asked, likely puzzled by the sight of Tanya frozen in shock after her exemplary behaviour throughout the interview.

A spark returned to her unblinking, lifeless irises. She processed the question several times to make sure she understood it right. The Audit Committee was giving her a second chance. Somebody in this cruel world ruled by monsters still had the integrity to push back and listen to words of wisdom. It didn't matter if the interview was formally over. As long as Tanya's remarks at least made it in the form of a footnote to an appendix of the finished report, the bureaucracy would be forced to respond. The root of the problem would then be acknowledged and Tanya would see the end of Schugel's reign of terror.

She would risk all of her military achievements to have this deliverance. The risk was worth it. Her relationship with Schugel couldn't possibly get worse and her only option was to fatally wound his credibility now that she had the chance–her second chance in a life that allowed no redos.

"The Acting Facility Manager is a madman who has no respect for human life."

The committee fell silent at those words.

Anxiety squeezed Tanya's throat as she waited for them to respond to the accusation. Tanya knew that pursuing the topic could result in either her or Schugel getting locked up. They could hold Tanya in contempt for backstabbing her CO instead of voicing her concerns via regular channels, but it was also possible that they would take action against Schugel.

She closed her eyes and waited.

"Obviously," she heard the chairman's voice. A weight was about to fall from her chest when she looked at the chairman, expecting to hear a scathing rebuttal of everything Schugel stood for, only to be mortified by his dismissive nod. It was a picture-perfect replica of the gesture that concluded her interview. Her case was dead on arrival despite appearing in agreement with the chairman's point of view.

The chairman continued: "He's also a lousy accountant. Overpaying the Military Police for escort missions, squandering resources on fireproof uniforms that do not appear to be fireproof, ignoring the maintenance costs of the facility's infirmary by sending testing personnel to an off-site hospital… Dr Adelaide von Schugel leaves much to be desired, but that is why he is the Acting Facility Manager and I don't see the status quo improving."

Tanya's faculties were in a bind about the lopsided thinking required to label a promotion freeze as adequate punishment for Schugel's crimes. She didn't know how to approach the issue in a way that would not be misunderstood. Her composure was breaking and she wasn't sure what her facial expression turned out to be at the time.

"B-b-but?" she stammered. "He put me in a furnace. He shot me out of a cannon!"

As she spoke, she realised the absurdity of her plight as well as the possibility that they could be in favour of preserving the status quo, in which children were to be shot out of a cannon like disposable circus freaks.

"Yes. We know. These expenses have been accounted for and we have no questions about them."

The Audit Committee were just monsters charged with overseeing a madman.

"Expenses? You don't itemise crimes against humanity under expenses! What kind of an audit is this anyway?"

"The facility's semi-annual financial audit, Second Lieutenant."

Tanya wanted to crawl into a hole and cry herself to sleep. It was the closest to dying that she would allow herself to do in the face of the enormity of her blunder. The chairman's explanation put everything in place, including Schugel's flippancy regarding the audit, his assistant's confusion and the questions about Tanya's lost uniform. Internal audits that focused on procedures and business ethics of the entire undertaking were not yet invented in this world. Therefore, the Empire's understanding of an audit was limited to purely financial matters. The Audit Committee measured Tanya's testimony in coin.

"Will that be all?" the chairman asked an already flustered Tanya.

After going all-in and losing, she didn't care about digging herself into more trouble. Having the assumption her happiness hinged on invalidated desensitised her to the potential consequences of pestering the glorified accountants acting under the Audit Committee's moniker.

"T-there is one more thing." She pointed at the blinking lie detector. "What's that?"

"It's a magic detector of some description. We had to take innovative measures so as to avoid hiring costly guards. The facility's expenses have risen since your arrival and it was not our intention to foster this trend."

"A…magic detector?"

She could feel the searing pain of being wrong with every fibre of her being. Another crucial assumption bit the dust and it sent shivers down her spine. After being treated to a buffet of her own failure, she couldn't help asking for more as she stuffed herself full. It had to be a lesson she wouldn't dare to forget.

Tanya could have lied, cheated and schemed to her heart's content, but she played their game like a good girl and got played like one. She didn't have it in her to rage about the outcome because it was all her fault. Why was Tanya such a good person? She could have gotten away with murder and she opted for mercy. In the end, she was the only one who did so in this motley of monsters.

"The on-site security detail would have joined us if things got out of hand, as they have in your past." The chairman handed her the prepared folder with her interview. "Sign here and you'll be on your way."

She checked the contents for references outside the interview text, which was properly transcribed, and found that the folder was marked as number three. The header referred to a list of interview logs rather than anything strongly-worded. It didn't look like the interview would make it into the Audit Committee's report. If they wanted to, they could bury it in minutiae, but they didn't need to go this far because they cared about money and things easily measured in money.

Despite it happening almost on a daily basis, Tanya felt bitter about having hope snatched away from her again. After penning her signature, she turned to the chairman: "There. Can you tell me what was the point of this interview, then?"

He acted like he didn't notice Tanya's accusatory tone. "We needed you to confirm that certain services billed to the testing facility have been provided as described, considering that you were the beneficiary of those services. MP escorts, healthcare, bespoke clothing, gourmet meals–to name a few."

And so, the accusation bounced right back at her. It had to be the chairman's way of telling her to shut up, but the information he unwittingly provided her as well as the fact the official interview was over fed into her fighting mood.

"Wait, you're blaming me?"

"Not at all. We are simply making an objective assessment."

The so-called objective assessment would put her in the crosshairs through association with Schugel regardless of the chairman's intentions, the propriety of which was already doubtful. She wanted to call him out and force a confession out of him, yet her desire for justice had to be restrained to avoid repercussions that could derail her career. On the other hand, yielding to the chairman's BS now would only benefit Schugel. She would have to settle for a greater loss if she let it go.

"This is an outrage."

His composure cracked from the accusation fielded by a military drone who didn't know her place. Unlike Tanya, the chairman possessed status that forbade him to accept defeat in this situation. He would rise to her challenge and, by doing so, divulge more useful information while smiting her. Tanya's apprehension of being smitten paled in comparison with her desperation to upend Schugel.

"No, Second Lieutenant. Purchasing a dodgy fireproof uniform for the price of an AA gun is an outrage. Taking our time for an emotional performance instead of agreeing to written testimony is just a waste, not really an outrage." The chairman narrowed his eyes in the end to give Tanya a hint that she should stop before she dug her own grave.

Tanya feigned ignorance as she took the hit. Getting the chairman to criticise Schugel made the pain worth it. She opened her mouth again perfectly aware that she would be struck down without mercy, "But you've seen what he's like! He's a monster!"

"We have. Where on the balance sheet you'd expect us to place that…value?"

 _In the liabilities section. Under so-toxic-it-must-be-disposed-of-by-the-end-of-the-reporting-period. Anyone taking Schugel for an asset would be two letters off._

She wanted to say that out loud, she really did. Alas, she could not afford the lashing she would get after taking the fight to the Audit Committee's backyard. She had to focus on hurting Schugel and her tactic in dealing with the chairman has proven effective thus far. Every time the chairman voiced his disagreement, he actually agreed with the underlying accusation. Schugel was a monster, a cheater, scum that no one wanted to have anything to do with–those were the chairman's own beliefs, in Tanya's view, and he made that apparent in the presence of other members of the committee. Even if the interview was over, Tanya could use this in the future.

Provided she had a future…

"He's going to kill me!" she piped out in response to the chairman's question.

Rather than refute her outburst like he did before, the chairman tilted his head and asked, "What makes you say that?"

The change in tone took Tanya by surprise. She hadn't prepared for the chairman to start taking her seriously at this point, so she replied without thinking, "Every Aerial Mage that came before me left this place in a body bag…or worse."

"Obviously, and we've covered that issue in our previous reports. But you're different, Second Lieutenant." The chairman almost succeeded in projecting the image of a father figure consoling a miserable child. The problem with believing in that image was that the chairman hadn't finished smiting Tanya and the tug of her heartstrings had to be a part of his strategy. Unfortunately, Tanya had cornered herself and was unable to end the conversation there. The chairman was waiting for her response, a sign that she was ready to be hurt.

"I do not understand."

"Are you familiar with the financial term 'extraordinary gain'?"

Tanya hissed internally at what would follow. The chairman had set a trap for her and made it so she would stick her neck out willingly.

"Enlighten me…"

The chairman rose from his seat to approach Tanya. This was the end. He was coming to strike the finishing blow and he wanted to do it up close and personal. She would be unable to recover.

As the distance between them diminished, so did Tanya's resolve to take the hit. From the chairman's point of view, it was likely going to be a mercy killing and his amicable expression supported that notion. The look in his eyes did nothing to soften the impact, however. It had the opposite effect, which Tanya believed to be intentional.

"You're so young, and an orphan, too. Barely any government money has been invested in you and you've already come so far. From an accounting perspective, you're an extraordinary gain, an anomaly, a fluke. We're happy to have you, but we won't miss you when you're gone because we haven't budgeted for you. Such is the reality of wartime accounting. Does this explanation help you understand our perspective?"

Tanya stood up, closed her eyes and bowed. "Thank you for your time."

She could not bear to stay in the Audit Committee's office any longer. She wanted a fight and got a massacre. Such was the dehumanising view of Schugel's overseers. To them, Tanya was but a fluke that had somehow survived past her expiry date despite Schugel's best attempts to force her to conform to the standard and just die already. Tanya has made a huge blunder by testifying in person and the corporal has thrown her under the bus by pitching the idea.

After getting back to the corridor and checking that the coast was clear, she groaned as she hit her head against the wall. The interview was a disaster she could not put into words. The bureaucratic organ supposed to save her ended up swallowing and grinding her case to dust. Schugel had been right to chastise her lack of foresight and the pain of him being right was further increased by the fact that Tanya did it to herself in spite of Schugel's suggestion to give up on the idea.

"How did it go?" she heard the corporal's distant voice.

Tanya punched the wall in response. His steps were coming closer and, as they did, Tanya's punches got stronger. He didn't get the hint even when she applied magic to her fist and left a dent in the wall. The corporal's ignorance had her fuming on top of the contempt she felt for his role in getting her back under Schugel's boot.

The idiotic smile her glare encountered got her to wonder how his worthless life slipped past Schugel's clutches. He was going to become a test pilot, a position more temporary and less rewarding than an organ donor's, yet the cold cruel world spared him. Tanya suspected that it happened to further engorge her misery. If Tanya wanted to fix that, she had to take matters in her own hands.

"I want a punching bag," she told him.

"Second Lieutenant?"

Tanya stepped away from the wall and turned in the corporal's direction. While her face was weighed down by shame, her grin revealed a different, more menacing outlook for the corporal.

"A volunteer would be nice."

He took off the moment she started approaching him–a wise decision. The corporal would be right to fear her from now on because the compensation she would extract from him for subjecting her to the embarrassment would be _punishingly_ high.

Tanya stood there for a few seconds until she realised the corporal could have fled from a presence more imposing than her own. Another pending disaster was breathing down her neck as Schugel snuck up behind her.

"It would, wouldn't it? Follow me when you're done lollygagging."

"Just a sec," she muttered. The next punch left a gap big enough to see what was going on outside.

Schugel took her petulance in stride: "The Audit Committee will complain about the cost of repairs the next time they're here."

Semi-annual audits implied six months. Schugel had a killer sense of humour.

"I'm not planning to stay here that long." The sealed envelope she had hidden underneath her uniform was her insurance policy. All she had to do was seize the opportunity to read it.

"Not to worry, Second Lieutenant. Your CO has taken care of your planning for you."

Why did it sound like he was going to make the task prohibitively difficult?


	46. Any Means Necessary

A thick layer of clouds hung over the testing facility. It looked like it was going to rain soon, but Tanya paid the signs no heed as she sulked her way outside.

The Audit Committee did a number on her and she couldn't bear to let it slide. That clique of glorified accountants dared to apply the cost accounting method to the value of her life, utterly disregarding her growth potential as an Aerial Mage.

So what if they saw her as a fluke no one planned for or invested in? Tanya was a precious find the Empire ought to protect to reap tremendous profits, a testament to the superiority of the free market over a planned economy. Her achievements were the result of her own initiative, not the orders of a central planning committee. If the planners had known what they were doing, they would have created a system that nurtured talented individuals like her instead of sending them to die at the hands of a monster.

Regardless, Tanya had made short work of that plan by surviving multiple instances of crimes against her own humanity. Given enough time and obstacles to overcome, Tanya's record would leave the Audit Committee and their ilk hard-pressed to acknowledge the expenses attributed to her as an investment. The institutionalised destruction of human life under the pretence of scientific progress accepted nothing short of failure as evidence of an individual's worth. It was up to Tanya to prove that it was easier for this system to let her live than to keep trying to off her, intentionally or otherwise.

Evolution implied the survival of the fittest, but it had no vector. Its potential to create and destroy was a subject of ever-changing circumstance, free from ill intent, unlike the maddening environment hand-crafted by Schugel and his cronies. In their skewed worldview revolving around theoretical wet dreams, any sacrifice was justifiable and the system supposed to keep the madness in check ended up encouraging it. The Audit Committee merely represented another extreme, riddled with biases that prevented it from seeing the big picture.

And in this big picture, a little girl was about to cry. The conditions of extricating herself from her current role, as shown by the powers that be, were an illusion, a mirage that moved further away whenever she rose to their challenge. The law of diminishing returns has kicked in, making her tenure under Schugel a race between others accepting her rationale and death from an unending Sisyphean task. There was no guarantee madness would behave as predicted and eventually admit defeat to her drive to survive. It would therefore be a mistake to rely either on the Audit Committee or Schugel for a way out. Another party had to enter the fray for the status quo to falter.

The envelope she had hidden underneath her uniform could shake things up, but Tanya couldn't afford to open it on Schugel's watch. The keen sense of a wily bureaucrat must have smelled trouble brewing, which made him wary of letting her off her leash even for a little while. He stayed close to Tanya and prodded her to scrutinise her state of mind. Anything she would say, even if it was nothing, would be used against her in the most efficient manner imaginable.

Once Tanya became fully aware of her surroundings, she let her surprise show upon witnessing the commotion. Several military trucks roared out of the testing facility. One of them was towing a platform with a tarp fastened over a long cylindrical shape, likely the barrel of a large gun. Magic signatures were also on the move. Having spent a long time away from magic other than her own, Tanya found the sudden change disorienting.

"Who are they?" she asked Schugel, referring to the magic signatures' owners.

"Volunteers from the Tactical Training Department, as far as you're concerned."

Schugel didn't trust her with the entire truth. He corroborated the corporal's story, but the latter part of Schugel's explanation suggested foul play. After combining that suspicion with what she learnt from past exchanges, Tanya surmised that these new Aerial Mages were who he said they were only on paper. However, the conditions to get Schugel to reveal more than the statutory minimum as dictated by his relationship with Tanya required a degree of familiarity she was psychologically unprepared for. She couldn't hope for Schugel to have a change of heart and start trusting her–he'd be an idiot if he did that; Tanya would exploit him, crush him and let the bureaucracy regurgitate the remains–while the path to a madman's good side was thorny at best. In short, it was impossible for Tanya to extract meaningful information out of him and she had no excuse to openly doubt the official version he had given her.

Tanya was painfully aware she'd have to let this one go, but she wouldn't let Schugel enjoy this victory. Her dry wit and flagrant distaste towards Schugel would be her weapons. "All right. What did they volunteer for?"

Instead of answering, Schugel appeared distracted by a group of Aerial Mages assembled around a coffee table set up by his assistant outside. The corporal was treating the volunteers, twelve in total, to a hot drink. Tanya had seen two squadrons divided into three flights each, suggesting that Aerial Mages from the other squadron, the presence of whom she could no longer detect, left the facility in one of the trucks.

When he saw that Tanya was expecting a reply despite the prolonged silence, supposed to tell her everything she needed to know, he half-smiled. From Tanya's vantage point, it was a frightening grimace.

"Second Lieutenant, if you are looking forward to anything other than your first test since returning from hospital, you are setting yourself up for disappointment again."

"You're my CO, so I won't tell you to piss off."

It was best not to pry further. By the sound of things, Schugel had nothing good to say on the topic of the volunteers. Tanya would have to watch her back around them.

She would have thanked him for the tip had it not been obvious: if something came in contact with Schugel, one had to exercise constant vigilance around it, regardless of appearances. Schugel had a tendency of turning seemingly harmless objects and people into agents of Murphy's Law by interacting with them in any capacity. A lit stick of dynamite was safer than anything coming out of Schugel's workshop.

Tanya feared how Schugel's effect would manifest in her.

"As long as you follow my orders precisely, I'm not too concerned about juvenile prattle."

While they approached the testing station situated at the end of a runway, Tanya pondered the laidback reply she received. On the surface, it looked like she could vent to him at no cost when, in reality, she received a stern warning. Schugel's understanding of adequate precision went beyond human capacity and the level of his concern could be defined by his willingness to complain about Tanya's conduct to the higher-ups. The circumstances of her return, including the presence of other Aerial Mages, put Tanya at a disadvantage compared to when she was the only living specimen for Schugel to experiment on. In the Audit Committee's words, Tanya became disposable.

"I'm sure you're familiar with this."

Schugel directed her towards a safety box made of lead. Despite the thickness of the coating material it could not hide the powerful mana distortions caused by the object within. The thought of having to take it out gave Tanya chills.

"Elinium Type 95B. Four cores. Support features enabled."

The so-called support features made this variant of the Type 95 Operation Orb the most demanding in terms of mana consumption. Like a black hole, it would ravenously pull mana from the environment and any Aerial Mage who stumbled into its area of effect, turning each activation into a game of Russian roulette. Sooner or later, the Type 95 would take the operator's life and the support features would only serve to magnify the damage. Tanya realised she was pressing her luck further every time and she would be unable to evade this eventuality forever.

Schugel nodded to Tanya's observation before adding: "And certain modifications that should prove...adaptable." He glanced at Tanya from the corner of his eye as he finished speaking, making it clear who will need to gather the proof.

The operation orb's unknown modifications notwithstanding, something else he conveniently slipped in caught Tanya's attention.

"'Should'?"

It was dangerous to dismiss the underlying notion as mere word choice because Schugel's confidence in the outcome of a test had not wavered before. Relegating the theoretical success rate from sure-fire to that of a probability suggested that he could not gauge the risks involved.

Such carelessness reminded her of the Audit Committee's MO: an extraordinary gain like Tanya, who has paid back the little the government had invested in her, could be justifiably cast aside. By acting on that principle with unseen fervour, Schugel's scumminess reached a whole new level in Tanya's eyes.

He wouldn't get away with this. Tanya would force him to admit that he wanted her to take on more risk than even his blasted theoretical models permitted.

Just as she stared at him in anticipation of a non-answer, his assistant approached her to offer warm clothes, goggles and a headset for communication. The additional care Schugel put in was indicative of her assumption's accuracy. He wasn't doing this out of charity or trying to make her feel more comfortable during the test. No. He procured the items because he was certain that she didn't stand a chance without them. It was the fig leaf supposed to cover up his negligence. Any observer would be fooled into thinking that Schugel did his best and the failure he handed to Tanya was actually hers to begin with.

The conditions to be laid in front of her would be both extraordinary and austere.

Schugel patted her on the back once she donned the gear provided to her–she expected him to evade and got a death flag instead. The explanation that followed had Tanya's brain going into overdrive to process clues about the traps Schugel had prepared for her.

"It is a test with noisy inputs, after all. Your instructions are simple: activate Item 95B and use it to reach an altitude of 3000, which you then must maintain uninterruptedly for five minutes. You have-"

She couldn't let it slide. After Schugel openly confirmed the enormity of the risks involved and contrasted them with the technical simplicity of Tanya's objectives, she had to stop him to avoid falling for the technicality. From Tanya's point of view, the simplicity Schugel had in mind was limited to handing out the instructions. Carrying them out would be another matter entirely, considering the likelihood of the operation orb going out of control. However, she wasn't going to call him out on those grounds. The real danger was misunderstanding a madman's orders by applying common sense to them. In other words, assuming she heard what he meant, not just what he said.

"Hold it right there!" said Tanya and threw her arms in the air, startling the assistant with the outburst and giving him a hiccup fit as a result.

"Hic-hic!"

"My thoughts exactly." Schugel folded his arms before ushering the assistant to have some water to alleviate the problem.

Now Tanya had his full attention. She had to phrase herself succinctly and precisely so as to corner Schugel into giving her the information she wanted. Standing at half the ceiling for standard operation orbs, 3000 was too little to warrant the extra care she received in preparation for a mere five-minute test. On the other hand, the quantitative criteria handed to her depended on uninterruptedness. Therein lay the difficulty. If Schugel was going to be the one in charge of measurements, she had to know how much grief his monitoring equipment was going to give her by resetting the timer. The devil was in the details.

"What is the margin of error?"

"There isn't any. My calculations are absolute." His immediate answer did not impress Tanya, but he looked like he wasn't going to stop there and try to rile her up. "Unless, of course... Of course! You meant your own _error threshold_. That's a nice way of phrasing it, is it not? Little discrepancies tend to mutate and become something else entirely."

"Yes. That." Tanya realised her mistake: she forgot that she was going to be the scapegoat for any measurement errors.

She took Schugel's segue to evolutionary biology as a form of punishment. The _error threshold_ or _critical mutation rate_ meant the number of mutations that led to the destruction of information contained within an organism. In some cases, this destruction implied death.

Was this what he meant when he mentioned modifications and adaptability? Schugel had a killer kindness in his heart: had she not pestered him with questions, he would have kept her blissfully ignorant about what could happen to her until it would invariably happen high in the sky. Now she had no one but herself to blame for getting to worry about the impending surprise.

"I can't help you there. But I will say that my measuring equipment takes your current attributes into account. The moment all of them deviate from the target altitude, the timer resets."

"Wait a minute!"

"You're oddly insistent on holding up the test. Is the excitement too much for you to handle? I can almost relate…"

Tanya ignored the three-pronged insult to keep the conversation on topic. The explanation he gave her sounded too considerate to be taken at face value. She didn't know how he intended this to bite her in the rear, but she would do her best to stop it from happening.

"I just don't understand-"

Schugel interrupted her, "That is fine. I don't need you to."

"What I meant to say-"

"Gracious, Second Lieutenant! Why don't you just say it? Progress waits for no man…child."

She bit her lip at Schugel's trailing tone. Not only did it come close to her secret identity, it also told her that Schugel would be unwilling to listen to valid concerns. Regardless, she had to try. Her life was at stake and this world has repeatedly proven that she couldn't rely on anyone to save her if she didn't pick up the slack herself.

"I've already done an altitude test, and a flight test, too."

"Did the test description say anything about 'altitude' or 'flight' testing? Allow me to refresh your ailing memory. The test description reads: 'Combined Item 95-series diagnostic and stress test with noisy inputs.' Have you, by any chance, _done_ such a test without my knowledge?"

Schugel sounded irate. For once, he went on the offensive by striking at the heart of Tanya's case: questioning the purpose of the upcoming test. While it may have appeared that Schugel brushed off her concerns, the underlying message was that her flight skills wouldn't help her pass. If the last combined test was any indication, the solution to this one wouldn't be in the manual.

"No, sir. No…"

He nodded and went on to deliver the rest of the testing conditions that would make Tanya wish she were to be put inside a furnace again: "You have a total of thirty minutes to complete your objectives. You may use any means you deem necessary to finish within the allotted time, but you may not dispose of, relinquish or allow damage to occur to Item 95. Upon completion, return to this spot, so my assistant may brief you about your next assignment. Your safeword is-"

Tanya swallowed her bitterness and stormed off to the safety box containing the operation orb. "Let's get it over with."

"That's not the safeword I had in mind, but I digress... Godspeed, Second Lieutenant. The world is watching."

Yes, everyone she hated was there. Schugel and his cronies, the Audit Committee and a bunch of faceless Aerial Mages who didn't even have the courtesy to greet her properly. Existence X was also somewhere among the rabble, like always. Watching, scheming, manipulating others to get her to fail…

Tanya would show them. She would show all of them the error of underestimating a free individual.

As she locked the Type 95B in position, she reviewed the rest of Schugel's instructions. She could use any means to complete the test. Any! The spectators wouldn't know what hit them.

Activation went without a hitch. Getting used to the operation orb's initial mana drain was like learning to ride a bike. Eventually, one found the right balance.

To keep the operation orb happy and occupied, she pushed a boatload of mana into each core with a mental command to set it all off simultaneously. The result was an explosive lift off that left a fiery crater on the runway and a number of people falling over from standing too close. Tanya was especially pleased about accidentally setting Schugel's coat on fire and catching a glimpse of the Audit Committee chairman's discombobulated expression.

She revelled in the chaos as the power of her magic propelled her skyward to the target altitude. Having been fired out of a cannon, coping with the acceleration was a matter of shielding, stabilisation and doping. Lots and lots of doping. If anything, the operation orb was efficient at that.

Tanya exhaled joyously in the cool solitude of 3000. The people on the surface looked like ants from her vantage point. Scurrying around flailing in panic over a fire sanctioned by Schugel–what fun! She could put it out herself with a secondary blast, but it wasn't a necessity as laid out in Schugel's instructions, so they would have to deal with it on their own.

All Tanya had to do was hang tight like a hummingbird and enjoy a moment of privacy. The extra layer of clothing kept her warm and the operation orb pointed at no immediate threats. Mana consumption aside, she could take it easy.

"Target altitude reached. Beginning countdown. Five minutes remaining," the assistant's voice caught up to her via the headset. Tanya could have done without this disturbance.

"I still don't see what's the point of this exercise."

Schugel chimed in, "Exercise? What exercise? Pay attention, Second Lieutenant! This is a stress test." The sounds in the background suggested that he was in a vehicle.

Tanya put her hands behind her head and pretended to lie down while levitating. "Mind if I read to pass the time? The stress is too much."

"You are allowed to use any means you deem necessary, so it cannot be helped."

Who would have guessed that Schugel's grating voice would ever be music to her ears? Tanya hummed to herself, pulling out the envelope from underneath her uniform. The admissions clerk had said it came from the Elinium Factory and was nothing to be excited about, but Tanya knew better: it was her ticket to freedom from Schugel, courtesy of her growing connections.

The machine text on the envelope fortified the impression that it brought good tidings. The indicated sender was the Manufacturing Department at the Elinium Factory, the least conspicuous part of that establishment, with the return address containing a direction to the attention of Gabriel, the Manufacturing Director's assistant, rather than the director himself. The Manufacturing Director was the only person of interest who failed to show up during her time in hospital, nor did he forward greetings to her. This absence of an informal relationship turned him into a suitable intermediary for those wishing to engage in confidential correspondence with Tanya. If it was the Inspector General or the Sales Director, Schugel would have taken action long before the letter could reach her hands. For example, by forcing her to participate in a lethal equipment test, so she would be unable to write a reply.

Tanya put two and two together and immediately took out the enclosed letter.

Just as she thought, the letter was constructed in a way supposed to pass surveillance. Neat, flowery handwriting above a sloppy signature that clearly belonged to another person, yet was formally attributed to the same Manufacturing Director. In the letter, the Manufacturing Director was expressing gratitude for Tanya's assistance in fast-tracking the establishment of a new mine and apologising for being unable to visit her in hospital due to changes in corporate structure. The letter went on to explain the ongoing centralisation of Krupps' administrative staff in the company's head office in Berlun, going as far as stating the name of the office building and the floor number.

 _In the off chance you have business in the capital, I would be grateful to have the opportunity to atone for the unfortunate chain of events that affected our working relationship. My colleagues and I have unearthed astounding materials following your mining venture with Big Robertha._

Tanya made a double fist pump when she realised the invitation was more than a formal gesture. The one behind the letter, whom Tanya presumed to be the furtive Sales Director, had material he wished to share with her in private and he didn't mean ores or minerals. He had dirt. Real dirt. About Schugel!

The wheels were finally turning and Tanya couldn't help dancing in the sky to their tune. A lot separated her from victory over Schugel, including a trip to the capital, but this small part went according to plan. Despite the odds stacked against her by practically everyone, her cry for help has made it. She had a will and now she has found a way.

"Huzzah!"

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer," the assistant's voice brought her spirits down to earth.

"Error threshold my ass."

Schugel wasn't far behind on the bandwagon to ruin the mood: "Stay focused, Second Lieutenant. My invention cannot succeed if the integral component that is the operator does not function as intended."

"Maybe it's better this way." Tanya stuck her tongue out to mock him, emboldened by the first piece of good news she has received in a while.

"Have no worries, Second Lieutenant. Your CO has planned ahead. If you fail in front of the Audit Committee, they will have to allot additional funding for training purposes and grant these excellent volunteers a station here. Whatever the outcome, it's a win-win!"

The gravity of the situation dawned upon her. Schugel had more than a dangerous test in mind. It was a test he wanted her to fail and, knowing who was in charge of the setup, acting out the failure would feel very realistic. To make matters worse, the presence of other Aerial Mages gave Schugel the tools to keep her indefinitely on the pretence of training, regardless of the Type 95's future.

Even if she passed the test with flying colours, Schugel would be the one to gain because she would be giving the Audit Committee concrete proof about his invention's viability. It was one convoluted nightmare scenario.

"Wait a minute!"

"Four minutes remaining," the assistant said.

A sound of clapping could be heard from Schugel's end of the line. "That's good! Prepare to introduce noise in three-two-one."

The operation orb picked up magic signatures down below. They were powering up for long-distance spells.

"Magic interference? Wait!"

Once she saw a multitude of bright lights reach out towards her from the surface, she realised the essence of the challenge Schugel has put forward. To complete the test, she would have to take a beating from at least a dozen Aerial Mages and she would have to bear it with a dodgy operation orb she had not yet used for offence.

Tanya manoeuvred around the first volley to come out unscathed. The assistant's voice, however, confirmed a hit: "Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

With every reset, she came closer to the 30-minute time limit. No wonder Schugel gave her so much freedom. In the end, Tanya found herself pushed into a corner.

"Time is ticking, Second Lieutenant! But remember: whatever you do, you will win. It is your destiny!"

"You're on, _Schuuugel_."


	47. In Lalaland

Stuck between a rock and a hard place–that was how Tanya described her current predicament. To complete the test, she had to uninterruptedly maintain an altitude of exactly 3000 for five minutes. The only problem was that as soon as the timer reached the first minute mark, Schugel's underlings would open fire at her. A dozen Aerial Mages with mana to spare were no laughing matter, and she had less than 30 minutes left to pull off a successful attempt.

Tanya couldn't risk taking a bad hit. If she lost consciousness, no one would come to her assistance at least until her failure was made official. Depending on Schugel's motive, she might not get a chance to get up at all. The letter she had received from her co-conspirator put her at odds with Schugel, who was likely aware of her plan to overthrow him.

Regrettably, the confrontation implied in the letter was also the only way forward. Schugel's exploitation has reached a new level now that the Audit Committee was spectating her progress. Tanya's success would further his agenda by demonstrating the effectiveness of the Elinium Type 95 Operation Orb while failure would put her in training hell. Regardless of the outcome, Schugel was sure to use her to score more funding for the madness to continue.

The Aerial Mages acting as volunteers from the Tactical Training Department were a means to an end for Schugel. The war must have been going well if they could spare a squadron to fulfil Schugel's demands. Tanya gagged at the thought of him making the requisition following her prolonged stay in hospital, pretending that her training regimen was his only concern. It was his fault that she had almost died in the first place.

Her current predicament was also his fault.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer," she heard the assistant's monotone over the headset.

"Dammit! Where's the Human Rights Watch when you need it?"

Nearly three minutes had gone by since the start of the test and Tanya has already worked up a sweat. The long-distance spells that the Aerial Mages stationed on the ground had been casting left lasting heat trails in otherwise cool air.

"If you have time for idle chatter, you must be sure you're doing well. I don't believe I can blame you, Second Lieutenant. Time is on your side, after all," Schugel chimed in.

In a way, Schugel was right because no one was firing at her for a change. The handicap surprised her. Tanya labelled it as a handicap because Schugel was mentally incapable of processing mercy and there was no other reason to give her a breather when the purpose of the test was to have her fail. She was almost happy about the way he underestimated her: thinking she'd otherwise go down too soon and leave the Audit Committee unimpressed. This overconfidence would serve as an opening for Tanya, but she was also aware that giving it her all would let Schugel reap most of the benefits.

The cards she was dealt left her short of good options. Dropping out early would leave a black mark on her career while Schugel would be able to cope with the collateral damage. Putting up a winning performance would result in Schugel tightening his grip of her by scoring big with the Audit Committee. Tanya wasn't sure if that was better than just letting the clock run out, which would give the volunteering Aerial Mages permanent residence at the testing facility.

Doing her best only to fall into a well-laid trap in the final stretch would hurt her pride the most, so the third option had the appeal of a compromise that left everyone dissatisfied. It would be evidence that neither Schugel's operation orbs nor Tanya were a match to standard Aerial Mage techniques performed by mere volunteers. However, this outcome was a wildcard Schugel had warned her about. The loon had accurately predicted her propensity to rationalise.

It came down to either yielding to Schugel's intellect or showing that he was wrong to underestimate her. Neither option would cause him the pain he rightfully deserved–a realisation that had Tanya's sanity howling in the back of her head–but she wouldn't let it break her spirit.

"Can you cut him off? You can cut him off, right? There should be a mute button on this thing…"

Schugel laughed, having likely realised that she'd be in trouble if she removed the headset, "Take it easy, Second Lieutenant. Think of all the Special High Intensity Training you'll be having from now on. Isn't it marvellous?"

So that was his game. Failing the test would weaken her hand in any negotiations and he made it obvious that letting the time run out would give him a new tool to torment her with, so-called Special High Intensity Training with his new puppets. The last thing Schugel needed was another way to magnify Tanya's misery.

Even if this was a form of reverse psychology on Schugel's part, she couldn't back out of the challenge. The Aerial Mages on the ground powered up once the clock reached the first minute mark again, locking Tanya's resolve into the attempt. The way forward was clear: she would take no prisoners.

"Ma-ma-marvellous? I'll show you marvellous, Schuuugel."

Tanya closed her eyes and evened her breathing to focus on the magic headed her way. Judging by the speed and distortion level, the shots would be no match for her agility. While she had to maintain a fixed altitude, Tanya still had nigh unlimited escape routes on a two-dimensional plane. The volunteers' shots targeting specific points on that plane were like mines in a game of Minesweeper. One had to be an impatient idiot to lose in that game.

A magic bullet zipped past Tanya's face as she manoeuvred out of the incoming cluster. The Aerial Mages shifted positions on the ground as they fired, so each spell had a slight variation that fit Schugel's description of noisy input. This also meant that they couldn't continuously bombard her with spells and, considering the mana reserves of the average Aerial Mage, flashy spells were a wasteful choice against a small and nimble target like Tanya.

"Your goons have been throwing long-distance spells at me all this time and it won't take long for them to run out of juice. They're not artillery you can resupply on short notice."

"There should be homing shots mixed in for good measure," Schugel replied.

Like on cue, less powerful yet more mobile interference spells registered on Tanya's operation orb. The engagement switched to a game of Pac-Man: Tanya had to avoid running into long-range spells while dodging the homing attacks. The heat and constant dodging were getting on her nerves, however. She decided that she would stand her ground from now on.

Tanya had been forced to use magic barriers creatively in the past, so this was a chance for the orb to show what it could do in a mage versus mage scenario. Schugel's volunteers would learn why they shouldn't have crossed a bearer of the Silver Wings Assault Medal.

Tanya had the mana to project a barrier thick enough to withstand most spells, but the feat wouldn't satisfy her. She wanted to make sure the volunteers learnt their lesson.

Pain was an efficient educator, a fact of life engrained in her during HR training. Since she was placed under Schugel's wing, this truth has been reaffirmed on a daily basis. When it came to pain, Schugel proved himself both tireless and inventive. Hence, she, too, would educate them through pain and dispel any illusions they might still have about the testing facility.

For example, the illusion that they could succeed to any extent by relying solely on brute force in the face of a stronger opponent. Unfortunately for them, Tanya was, in her humble opinion, such an opponent. And she had the high ground. The one thing holding her back from undoing the source of irritation with an act of peerless strength was the wildcard operation orb. If the volunteers had a different idea about the reason why she hadn't massacred them yet, they were wrong and it was too late to repent.

Their thoughts about the encounter didn't matter to her regardless. The volunteers were an expression of Schugel's strength, a tool meant to apply pressure on her, to break her, and so defeating them also meant defeating him by proxy. What better way to win than by subverting the opponent's strength?

Schugel was careless to entrust the execution to underqualified pawns, a mistake Tanya found too convenient to take at face value. Still, she had more than enough on her hands without him complicating matters in person, nor did it change her immediate objective: show the pawns their rightful place.

The protective barrier that Tanya erected in front of herself was made with the express purpose of being visible from the ground. It was her challenge to them. She'd take on everything they had and more.

Schugel's upstarts couldn't resist such bait. A single mage's barrier would yield to the unstoppable force of a squadron's coordinated attack. There was strength in their numbers, or so Tanya wanted them to believe.

A barrage of high-energy magic projectiles was their answer. The volunteers have outdone themselves by seizing the opportunity with gusto, as Tanya had to give up her superior mobility to maintain the barrier. In their view, she made a tactical blunder.

Providing too many inducements was bound to raise suspicion, so Tanya was glad they caught on quickly for pawns. Having committed a large amount of mana to the attack, they guaranteed her a few seconds of respite post-impact, if only to gawk at the results of their squadron shooting at a little girl. She wasn't going to hold that against them since it was a part of her plan.

Tanya would have accomplished her goal by demonstrating that her barrier was too thick for them to penetrate, but that could have encouraged them to try again rather than acknowledge her superiority. Hence, she took it a step further to really trip them up. The barrier's glossy sheen wasn't just for show; Tanya constructed it in such a way that it would reflect magic as well as light. Manipulating its shape at the anticipated points of impact to bounce individual spells in one combined destructive bundle was a cakewalk. She would give the volunteers a faceful of their own magic.

She grinned in anticipation of her opponents fuelling her counterattack while she kept track of all the parameters. Everything checked out. Lying lifelessly in a crater was the volunteers' future.

 _So this is clairvoyance, huh? Neat._

Just as the first spell collided with the barrier to be reflected exactly as planned, a message she received over the headset broke her focus thus affecting the barrier.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

"What? Why?!" By the time Tanya got herself together, she realised that the barrier had deformed too much during her lapse of concentration and she had to dodge to save her skin. One of the shots came too close for comfort, distorting the air in front of her face with a lasting heat trail.

"Pushback, Second Lieutenant."

Overconfidence had taken the best of Tanya and she was sure not to repeat the same mistake again. Different forces were in play in the air. In the absence of solid support, it was nigh on impossible to maintain a fixed position while taking fire. She had to consider a more direct approach if she wanted to see the volunteers beaten into submission.

"Push back, you say? Don't mind if I do! I am allowed to use _any_ means at my disposal, right?"

"That is correct, Second Lieutenant."

Tanya beamed in response, giddy to hear that her right to slaughter wouldn't be taken away when she was about to exercise it. With Schugel in charge, one could never be too careful.

Hence, her delight was a façade. Tanya knew full well that retaliating meant throwing caution to the wind. It was going to be the first time she used a Type 95 to attack and she wasn't even provided a gun to channel her magic. Having to rely on the wildcard operation orb in such conditions made her sick to her stomach.

She was uneasy about funnelling her mana into the orb's offensive mechanism. This put additional strain on the components currently in use while awakening whatever moving parts she hadn't been given the opportunity to test yet. For all she knew, it could blow her to smithereens.

But if she didn't take the risk of doing that to herself, the Aerial Mages acting on Schugel's orders would hand-deliver that result to her. Tanya was not going to let that happen. She would show Schugel that she could adapt to any situation.

"I don't need a weapon to focus this shot."

Perhaps, that was the adaptability he referred to at the start of the test? Tanya didn't have the time to dwell on the topic. She had a squadron of Aerial Mages to take care of.

Destruction would bring much-needed release. She had already analysed the spellcasting and movements of each assailant, so doling out the precise amount of magic to silence them was a matter of balancing her own fears. Too little mana and some of them would remain conscious. Too much and the orb could overheat. In the end, Tanya opted to bring them all down with one blast while she had the element of surprise on her side.

The volunteers didn't change their future as Tanya had foreseen it. They merely postponed the inevitable. She didn't care whether their own mana or hers made it happen.

Were the conditions any different, she could have enjoyed the prospects of wreaking havoc. Tanya checked her vitals for anomalies, steadied her breathing and let loose her magic to power the orb's offensive module. She had a reliable yet potent spell in mind, one she wouldn't have needed the additional cores to bring to fruition. This was a necessary precaution to manage both the orb and the magic that she'd have to guide by hand.

Despite these painstaking preparations, the moment she pulled the internal trigger to cast the spell, nothing happened. She pulled it again, adding mana in the process to overcome the orb's hunger, should it have been the culprit.

Her efforts were in vain. The spell wouldn't materialise and now she had a petulant operation orb filled to the brim with mana begging for release.

"Eh? Ehh?! Why won't it fire?" She tapped the headset to get the other side's attention. "Schugel, what's the big idea giving me this defective piece of junk? It won't fire!"

Schugel took his sweet time to respond while the assistant announced the end of the first minute in her current attempt. The progress she was making seemed to infuriate her further because it wasn't the outright victory she had been hoping for. Tanya's solution made her quandary worse because now she had to deal with a saturated operation orb as well as being on the receiving end of a turkey shoot.

"You are the defective component here, Second Lieutenant. This operation orb has been modified for defence only."

Her eyes squeezed shut as she grimaced. She was in deeper than she had imagined. "BS! I call BS! There's no way in a million years that would be useful on the battlefield." Tanya proceeded to expend the agitated mana on doping spells to manoeuvre around incoming fire. The volunteers pulled no punches when it came to shooting her out of the sky.

"That is something to be determined by the outcome of this test. I hope you didn't expect me to order you to simultaneously check defence and offence right after you've returned from hospital. I'm not a monster."

Schugel's reply was a bitter pill to swallow. The accusations she had fielded at him came back with a vengeance. This was his mercy.

"I've been cheated. I can't fight back. I can't take hits," she lamented to no one but herself whilst dodging; the volunteers paid no heed to her conversation and continued the bombardment.

To insure herself from more surprises, Tanya examined the level of the modifications done to her operation orb. She wasn't keen on doing it because it could have tripped unstable circuitry or activated more untested features that Schugel intended to adapt her to.

She found little of interest, much to her own chagrin. The operation orb had an improved scanner that crudely emulated GPS together with the ability to ping objects. It could potentially help Tanya keep track of Schugel and his volunteers' locations, but the obvious drawback was that Schugel's monitoring equipment could have been receiving a very precise measure of her location. The tracking data would be useful to Schugel to make inferences about her agility to construct harder tests in the future. If anything, Schugel taught her not to expect the worst outcome imaginable because her imagination would be outdone by reality.

"Three minutes remaining."

Tanya twitched in anticipation of more pain upon hearing the announcement. Her progress was up a continuously steepening mountain with no top in sight. She snorted at the idea of going so far up the exponential slope that she would see it curve backwards on itself like a snail. If the math allowed it, Schugel would have already put Tanya there. Not that reality could stop him from trying.

Precious seconds ticked by in silence. It was a bewildering change of pace, from having to dart around like a mad hummingbird to this uneasy stillness. The volunteers were clearly up to something. After all, Schugel had cooked up the test, so there was no reason for them to give her a breather other than to lull her into a false sense of security.

It wasn't going to work. Tanya had stuffed her confidence where the sun didn't shine to keep it from getting the best of her. She would not allow herself the satisfaction of taunting them for being unable to break her. Going that far would be courting disaster. Tanya has learnt her lesson.

Schugel could have anticipated that, though, and purposefully put in a short break to mess with her. Tanya found herself conditioned to the unending stream of inhuman challenges, so a taste of peace appeared to have thrown her out of the comfort zone. It was a depressing revelation for the pacifist in her.

"Two minutes remaining."

"Maybe they're really out of it…" she mumbled and looked up for the first time in over a minute.

What she saw was both alarming and new: some of the magic bullets she had dodged were on their way back down. Had her fixation on the volunteers' actions on the ground continued any longer, she would have been unable to safely dodge.

"Hit me in a blind spot, huh? Not a chance! I dodged them going up and they can have it on the return."

Judging by the trajectory and intensity, the shots would cause a lot of damage to the testing facility, a lucky break as far as Tanya was concerned. She wasn't going to catch any, so the volunteers would have to deal with their own duds.

The volunteers remained idle, however, neither scattering nor raising protective barriers. The reason dawned upon her hard just as she got accustomed to not being in pain: they could afford to relax because the bullets were not going to reach the ground.

"… Timed explosives."

The first projectile exploded to her side, throwing her off balance. The second lit up right above. She cast a barrier to protect herself from the third, but it didn't matter in the end. The assistant's voice brought her the news: "Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

She used to think that the absence of splash damage was the saving grace of this turkey shoot. Whoever set her up with her current life must have had a whale of a time proving her wrong. There were no saving graces to what she was doing. No saving. No graces, either. It was just her and this mountain of pain out to collapse on top of her and crush what remained of her humanity.

After returning to the target altitude, she cursed the accuracy of that image because the magic bombardment from above did not appear like it would end anytime soon. The occasional boom was followed up with an expletive-laden tirade on one end and a droning "Target altitude lost. Resetting timer" on the other. The shock of having to deal with a pummelling from above and below simultaneously left her out of breath more than her vitals would have suggested.

She hadn't crossed the first minute mark, so no one was firing at her from the ground, but the heap of challenges she had to keep in mind never stopped growing, taking a toll on her performance.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

"I demand a second opinion!" she cried out. There were too many to dodge. She'd have to fly a hefty distance away from her current position and even that would be a temporary reprieve because the volunteers would just start firing at her new position. Her current strategy was untenable, like bashing one's face against a wall in hopes of breaking said wall.

"Do you?" she heard Schugel on the line.

Give up? No. Never. Fighting on guaranteed pain until the sweet release of victory. Surrender guaranteed pain, period.

Tanya would fight and she would use her head to get around this predicament. She had discarded the idea of casting large barriers due to the pushback resetting the timer. Having a time limit put a squeeze on her brain, making it difficult to look more than one step ahead. She wouldn't make it if she limited her objective to dodging the next shot because she still needed to prepare for the inevitable surprise on Schugel's part.

The test was about fighting noise, chaos, random inputs that could not be explained with patterns. Since Schugel stood behind it, it wasn't a case of true randomness or white noise, but Tanya did not have the time to explain away his brand of chaos.

Since chaos was the problem, the solution would have to be order. Albeit the limited tools at Tanya's disposal brought bitterness to her face, she didn't have the time to waste by dwelling on it. However, she had enough time to sacrifice to bring order back.

After confirming that the timer has been reset and no one would be firing at her from below, she turned her attention skyward to give the operation orb a stress test of her own. There were too many falling projectiles left to count, so there was no point in counting. Or targeting. Or moderating herself.

The facility's safety crew taught her a valuable lesson about barriers early on. For a crafty mage with an operation orb to match, possibilities were defined by mana reserves alone, leaving the desired shape, size and other properties up to the imagination. In Tanya's case, this was an opportunity to see how far she could go.

As far as the four cores would take her. Tanya removed her goggles and glared at the incoming projectiles while channelling her mana into the operation orb until it got so hot it was about to set her clothes on fire. This was her signal to let it rip and project a barrier big enough and thick enough to suppress any magic heading her way downwards.

She gazed at her creation with disbelief, the magic equivalent of an artillery-proof bunker. Unlike the real thing, though, hers could move. Pushback wouldn't be an issue if she pushed the barrier itself back– away and into the sky. The magic would quickly dissipate without an immediate connection to maintain its form, yet Tanya was sure it would last sufficiently long to block the remaining shots.

Once the barrier started ascending, the timed explosion spells were out of her hair. She could look down at the volunteers on the ground, whose trickery she had effectively dismantled.

Tanya ran her hand through her hair waving in the wind. "I rest my case," she said in response to Schugel's question. "Still, I don't see the point of this test."

Schugel said nothing in defence, leading her irritation to swell.

"I could have stood in a shooting gallery or, you know, fought on the front. Like I did when I got my medal. This doesn't even pass as a shitty endurance test."

The volunteers had resumed fire, but it left Tanya unimpressed. Her barrier was holding out nicely in the distance despite magic bullets exploding against it from both sides. The light show was so intense it was probably hard for them to aim. When the conditions were right, Tanya's shadow blocked out the flashes, thus leaving an opening for a good shot.

She was on a roll. "What's the matter, Schugel? Talk to me!"

"Two minutes remaining," the assistant said.

"Oh, so that's how it goes. He switched off, so I don't hear him crying. That's fiiine, I-" she paused upon realising that the explosions stopped. The volunteers weren't firing anymore, nor were they on the ground. A second later Tanya found them flying towards her, weapons in tow. "Why are they moving?"

Short-range spells were the answer she received. Having dodged the first few, she found herself cornered in the sky as the squadron took position to pepper everything in her general location with fire and fury.

"I wasn't told they'd be moving!"

"One minute remaining."

Dodging that many magic projectiles up close was even more impossible. Scattering blasts hurt like hell and she could only take so many to the face until she was out cold, forcing her to cast conventional barriers–the very same that caused pushback and cancelled the progress she has made.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

Tanya groaned about returning to square one. The volunteers also took their cues by withdrawing. The altitude and timing have been calculated precisely to allow them to reach the surface to resume bombardment a minute later as scheduled. From their perspective, everything was going according to plan. It was pissing her off.

"How much time do I have left?" Tanya asked the assistant.

"Just under seventeen minutes."

"Still safe…." Arms folded, she pondered her situation. They opened fire at the first minute announcement. Two minutes in, whatever shots passed by returned to Tanya's level as timed explosives. Another minute and they took flight to surround her.

The result of their actions was also the same. Tanya had neither a weapon nor an operation orb that could cast attack spells. The unfairness was infuriating. The only way she could win was if she could fight them off, but she could only use defensive spells. The condition to maintain a fixed altitude threw a spanner in whatever plan she concocted.

"This is impossible! I can't fight them and keep the timer going."

Instead of tearing at her hair in frustration, Tanya blinked and repeated to herself what she just said.

"That's right. I can't fight them while the timer is going. Heh-heh. That is absolutely right!"

Tanya spun around her axis, cackling like a lunatic. It was a glorious revelation in her present mental state. She was attempting to do two mutually exclusive things at once. Had she acknowledged that error in judgement earlier, she would have saved herself the embarrassment, but there was no use to cry over spilled milk. Tanya would come out of this encounter a wiser man…child? She made a mental note to address the looming identity crisis at a later date.

For now, she had a _pressing_ matter to take to her oppressors.

"Time?"

"Twelve minutes remaining, Second Lieutenant."

"Hold that thought," she said and zipped down.

"Target altitude lost. Resetting...timer?" The assistant's monotone broke in the end, likely confused by the changing altitude reading. That didn't stop her, though. She continued her descent. "Second Lieutenant? Where are you going? You don't have the time to fool around!"

"It is precisely why I'm doing this. I can't fight and keep the timer going at the same time. You can guess what I'm going to do next…"

"But-but. This is suicide. You're defenceless!"

"Butt out. _That_ was suicide." She pointed at the sky. "As for my defence skills… I am feeling _very_ confident right now, not quite defenceless. Calling me unarmed would also be inaccurate."

Tanya took an excited breath once she levelled with the volunteers, who looked bewildered by what they saw. The little girl they had been shooting at descended from the heavens to talk to them even though she was about to run out of time.

She waved at them bashfully and threw a half-innocent smile. The other half of that innocence had fallen in a pit of seething rage and she wasn't feeling too motivated to pick it up. The volunteers _did_ volunteer for this.

"Hi! Fancy meeting me here, huh? So, I saw you firing at me…yes, would you kindly cut that out?" Tanya gave them her best little girl impression, going as far as adding a cute fluttering blink in the end. She wanted the disconnect to sink in because they had been making her life difficult for the last twenty minutes and she has not only held her own, but also managed to bring the fight to their turf. If that was not clear to them yet, the inevitable future would catch on to them quickly.

"I've permission to hurt people and I don't want you guys to get caught in all of the…hurting…that is about to begin. So, how about this: you stop attacking me and I leave you as you are, happy to be alive. All right?"

Tanya accentuated the offer with her pearly whites. Those were the teeth of a shark preying on a group of baby seals, presented first-hand for the aforementioned seals' convenience.

Judging by their indifferent attitudes, the seals failed to understand their role thus sealing their collective fate. They didn't even acknowledge her offer.

What they were doing wasn't bravery, only foolishness. Tanya had offered them a means to avoid the inevitable future. She may have done it in a perfunctory fashion, since anyone clever enough to volunteer as Schugel's pawn deserved having their brains forcibly donated to science, yet a chance was still a chance–nothing to scoff at when the alternative was a luxurious, unforgettable lesson in pain taught by an expert.

"No? I see. How about I give you another chance? Have a long, hard think. Your body will thank you for it!"

Tanya has gone out of her way to avoid bloodshed and, by doing so, got a pass on any criticism from the members of the Audit Committee observing in the background. It was a matter of shifting the blame for the collateral damage on the volunteers' shoulders, provided they had shoulders to speak of by the time Tanya finished with them.

"And your final answer is?"

Their negative response appeared to have disappointed her. Tanya lowered her head until they couldn't see her changing facial expression. The sound of guns cocking in sequence compared to shackles being removed from her arms and legs, setting Tanya free from her ardent pacifism. They must have imagined that they were preparing to fight her while, in reality, they were preparing her to fight them.

She sprang into action as soon as the first volunteer took aim at her.

"Wrong. You lose!"

The Elinium Type 95 Operation Orb made short work of their weapons. Tiny mobile barriers that Tanya materialised pressed and mangled the guns, causing a few to misfire and blow up in the volunteers' hold.

Surprise merged with shock and terror, showing that they were beginning to understand what was about to befall them: the inevitable future. It was the proper reaction Tanya had been eager to see. Not anymore, though. They had to try harder to compensate for wasting her kindness.

"They say offence is the best defence. I can't disagree more! There's no offence like defence. With great prejudice!"

Upon finishing her speech, Tanya rose above the volunteers and put her arms out, focusing. The first invisible barrier that she cast sliced a ring shape into the pavement. It was the sole hallmark of a dome-like enclosure she projected to prevent anyone from escaping the second barrier, manifesting inside the first. The second barrier caused a visible distortion to give the volunteers an impression of where their insistence on fighting her would take them: straight to the ground.

Tanya lowered her arms with a laboured grunt, bringing the pain by having the second barrier smash downwards, crushing the volunteers underneath. Albeit they had cast protective spells and tried to remain upright, the force and speed with which Tanya attacked were too great to offer meaningful resistance to.

Within seconds, the volunteers were laid prone in a crater dug out by their own foolishness. They were yelling obscenities to make Tanya stop, but Tanya knew well what it meant: if they still had the energy to raise their voices, they were not quite broken yet.

She let her actions speak for her by lifting the weight ever so slightly off the volunteers' prone bodies, fortifying the barrier and adding a less smooth surface texture, and bringing it down with zest.

The cries were louder and less intelligible. Tanya took it as a sign that the volunteers were learning their place.

"Can any of you still move? Honest answers only. No takebacks!"

The barely audible verbal abuse she got from them was worth applauding. Schugel struck gold with those try-hards: fighting to their last breath as if this wasn't a mere equipment test. Such commendable spirit belonged on the front, not in a team-killing madman's lair, and Tanya would do her best to return said spirit to its rightful place.

"Are you sure?" she asked again in a deliberate, mocking manner.

The pressure exerted by the barrier was beginning to cause fractures, and even support spells couldn't help them inhale properly. They were down on the ground, dominated by her completely, and yet they had the outstanding foolishness to cast support spells on themselves. Magic signatures were a dead giveaway of an Aerial Mage's threatening presence. They were better off _playing_ dead than encouraging their opponent to get serious.

She sighed in exasperation as she manipulated the barrier to move back and forth, emulating a full-body smash against the pavement until the last magic signature fizzled out. Once all of them lost consciousness, Tanya contemplated offing them just in case. Fanatics were dangerous to have around, which explained how Schugel managed to recruit them.

In the back of her mind, Tanya was screaming at the horrors Schugel was subjecting her to. Sending her own compatriots to intensive care over an equipment test was sick. They weren't foreign spies, and even if they were, their treatment would have amounted to illegal torture. However, the moral quandary of her actions never reached the surface of her consciousness because Schugel had been the one pulling the strings and the string he pulled this time happened to be connected to a mental grenade pin.

The adrenaline-laden excitement of besting her taskmaster in the most egregious stress test yet clouded her judgement, but she was fine with her faculties as they were. This was a defensive mechanism she needed in order to survive. It protected her mind from the madness of war and the implications of her own actions.

She levitated above a dozen unconscious Aerial Mages, her terse grin reflecting in pools of their blood. If anything, this was proof that she managed to adapt and evolve as a soldier. She defeated her opponents through defence alone. A killing blow would secure this victory, yet she did not feel that she had the luxury of time to carry it out. The presence of the Audit Committee limited her choices to what was truly necessary to win.

"Good. Stay put. I'll be back in five," she said while keeping her eye on the Audit Committee chairman. He signalled that she has made her point clear.

The spectators' cries for a medic were the last thing she heard before flying back to the target altitude. Schugel would pay dearly for the chaos he forced her to spread while she would reap the benefits. The test has gone too far for him to be off the hook. Even the morally vacuous oversight he answered to would buckle under the weight of the evidence. There were too many witnesses, too many bodies. The surviving volunteers would surely speak out.

"Lalala. All is well in Lalaland."

A glorious comeuppance! The timer was ticking away in the refreshing peace of Tanya's altitude of 3000. She observed the people scurrying on the ground like ants. Medical crews rushed to the scene and Tanya's orb caught intense radio chatter coming from the testing facility. News was probably beginning to break out.

"One minute remaining." The assistant's monotone kept her company, reminding her that this wasn't a dream. She was winning. Schugel was losing. Without his pawns, he had nothing to throw at her.

"I've got to hand it to Schugel's volunteers. They make excellent punching bags. I-" Her boisterous speech was interrupted by a pre-emptive warning: the operation orb picked up an incoming target.

Instinctively, Tanya cast a barrier to block the shot. She wasn't done analysing the projectile or its trajectory yet, so it was a case of standard self-defence rather than a countermeasure for this type of ordnance.

The projectile exploded in a tight cluster of black clouds before it could hit the barrier, catching Tanya off guard when a part of the cluster went over the barrier's edge. The feedback was instantaneous: she was struck by a blast wave, thick smoke and shrapnel. Despite her best efforts to remove all threats, Schugel found a way to bring out the pain. Tanya was reeling from the humiliation, especially from the fact that the rugged clothes Schugel had provided her with absorbed most the splinter damage.

Unfortunately, they did not save her from hearing the bad news. "Target altitude lost. Resetting timer."

Another setback sent her back to square one. This world knew no kindness and there was no winning against it. Successes were fleeting and far-between, their existence–bait to keep her playing a rigged game. And yet, she had had this in the palm of her hand. Victory was so close she could taste it. That was why it hurt so much to see it taken away.

"No! You are kidding me! Time! How much do I have?"

"Five minutes and thirty seconds."

"That's not enough. Urgh. Where did that shot come from…" Upon returning to the target altitude, Tanya removed the now-ruined clothes she wore over her regular uniform and waited for the wind to dispel the smoke.

The explosion had the hallmarks of a particular type of ammunition Aerial Mages despised, fired from an 88 mm Flak cannon. Schugel obviously wanted to save this dirty trick for last, but he miscalculated. Tanya still had time left whereas he has lost the element of surprise. The volunteers were defeated and the cannon she had previously seen hauled out of the testing facility sang its swan song, a one-note melancholy in A minor.

"Ah hah!" she exclaimed once she located the cannon's location. It was too far to reach in the time that she had, but that didn't matter. Tanya's chest rose in excitement as she ruminated her opponent's pathetic state. "Unlike Aerial Mages, AA guns are predictable, static. Nothing you can throw at me can surprise me anymore. I've a hard counter for every piece of ammunition out there."

To make her point clear, Tanya cast a wide barrier that she pushed forth to creep to the Flak cannon's location and added several layers of protection at close range. With her alertness maxed out and the heart pumping from adrenaline, she demonstrated complete confidence in her control of the battlefield.

"You. Can't. Touch. Me."

A wicked grin spread across her face when the Flak cannon fired at the final minute announcement. The shot didn't make it past the first barrier. It crumbled into pieces way out of reach, not enough to make her budge. Tanya's words were thus vindicated.

Silence was her prize. Precious seconds trickled down without sight of danger.

"Ten seconds remaining."

The announcement made her laugh. It was a delirious laugh, a strange mixture of disbelief and euphoria about having surmounted the insurmountable. It was now too late for Schugel to intervene. The assistant's voice brought her closer to deliverance with each announcement.

"Five-"

"Yes!"

"Four-"

"Give it to me!"

As if beckoned by her call, the Flak cannon fired again. Schugel was obviously desperate, and insane, if he thought he'd get a different result by trying the same thing again. It was a clear indication that Tanya had the upper hand.

"Three-two-"

"Useless!"

She feigned a yawn as she watched the projectile approach the first barrier, light up and break right through it. At that very moment, she felt her stomach back up while her pupils shrank in fear. She saw the second barrier fall right after, followed by the third.

Tanya's operation orb became erratic, more so than a mere reflection of her state of mind. The operation orb was reacting to something.

"One-"

She realised what it was only when she noticed crimson sparks dancing at the tip of the shell. Schugel has indeed saved the best for last, a miniature version of the elinium-tipped explosive that had blown up a mountain. He threatened a little girl with a weapon capable of causing nuclear fallout! After subjecting her to what a firing squad in all but name!

Tanya's instinct was to flee, but the shock of the revelation slowed her reaction time to a point that made escape impossible. Hence, she braced for impact, putting as much magic protection between herself and the threat.

It sliced through barriers like butter while inching towards her. The readings she got off the operation orb showed that if she didn't immediately come up with a plan, the shell would continue on its path and leave a gaping hole where her chest was.

She couldn't use offensive spells. She had to adapt, no, evolve her method to survive this, just like she did with the volunteers.

A knight's shield could do more than block and pound an opponent. Provided an opening and sufficient brute strength, the shield could become a blade.

Tampering with the elinium tip was out of the question. However, if she separated it from the rest of the shell, she would have a lighter, more manageable threat. Divide and conquer.

A wedge-shaped barrier was set in motion to break through the shell's casing. Tanya cast it at an angle to make a massive tear, well aware that the fissile material could ignite from the impact. It was a choice between potentially burning to a crisp and gaining an extra hole. As far as Tanya was concerned, she already had one too many. Existence X would pay for the humiliation.

Fear morphed into anger and then returned to its original state. The weaponised barrier came across an obstacle it couldn't cut through in spite of Tanya's tremendous strength. With a clinking sound, it bounced back, giving Tanya an inkling of the hole in her plan: it was not an elinium-tipped shell, but one containing an elinium penetrator rod. Unlike depleted uranium used in armour-piercing shells from her previous life, elinium needed barely an excuse to detonate.

"No! This can't be! I was this close!" Tanya screamed at the top of her lungs while a blinding light tore through the shell from the inside, flashing out from the fissure Tanya made before engulfing everything in her view. She was pissed at herself for discarding the goggles she had been issued. Her sight was effectively shut down, as was her hearing.

Tanya put out her arms and shifted on the spot to reduce her footprint facing the elinium explosion. The operation orb flickered from the interference caused by the blast, reducing the stopping power of any barrier she cast while the bright flames blossomed.

Caught by the blast wave, she thrashed like a leaf in the wind. The defensive spells that she knew couldn't possibly contain the feral power she unleashed. The air around her heated up to an intensity that she stopped breathing to avoid scolding her lungs. Her hair singed and clothes charred as the explosion thrust her into the distance.

Her eyes were closed the entire time, but it wasn't enough to obscure the fireball's expansion. The desert sun at noon paled in comparison and Tanya was supposed to offer resistance to that.

She remained perfectly still until she noticed the fireball contracting. It took her another good moment to realise that the contraction didn't happen yet and it was a matter of distance: she was being blown out of the sky, plummeting to the ground.

The target altitude was invariably lost and she was out of resets.

A steady stream of expletives fielded at Schugel and his ilk came out of her mouth while she waited for the damning verdict.

And the mocking laughter. Schugel deserved to rub it in her face; it wasn't beneath him. In fact, since it was Schugel, he was bound to exceed his own scumminess sooner or later. So, why not now while the iron was hot?

"Is the operation orb intact?" she heard the assistant's voice.

Tanya blinked. It hurt to blink, but she was able to. Huzzah!

The explosion had begun dissipating and Tanya was aware of it. She just needed to pull herself together. It would be bad to hit the ground at her present velocity. She also had to remind herself to breathe. The cooling air offered due refreshment. It beat inhaling the smoke tailing her. She must have been on fire.

"Yes. I think." Her own response seemed to confuse her. The underlying message was too simple, too gratifying to be true. After ordering the operation orb to stop her fall, she put out the parts of the uniform that were burning while she gathered the courage to ask the definitive question: "Does this mean I pass?"

"I'm not sure. The Engineering Director isn't answering."

Come to think of it, the assistant hadn't announced the loss of target altitude while the timer was running, suggesting that the explosion happened too late to affect the result. Moreover, the scientific method required a hypothesis to be rejected rather than approved, meaning that a lack of rejection pointed to the contrary: Tanya has won.

Tanya managed a smile and did her best not to let her lingering confusion show. "He must be biting his nails since I passed."

"No, Second Lieutenant. He's…missing. Please, hurry back."

"Eh? Ehhh?!"

* * *

Author's note: Feel free to review and follow, so you don't miss the finale.


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